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> Why pay someone huge sums of money if failure is the expected outcome?

Because the people making executive compensation decisions are from a narrow elite class and are the people benefiting from executive compensation decisions.



Well-said. Major example: interlocking boards of directors. They clearly demonstrate cartel-like behavior where it's "us vs them" at one level protecting their personal profits and "them vs them" at another level competing for good positions, policy preferences, or market share. Unsurprisingly, it's one of ideal moves a capitalist can make in an environment like the U.S. given it gains the personal benefits of capitalism while minimizing the risk that real competition or cost minimization of labor would bring them. They must operate collectively to defeat what threatens their wealth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlocking_directorate

Example with some specifics and nice illustrations:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/corporate_communi...

EDIT: The answers all around yours are screenshot-worthy. Perfect example of what the elites bought with all those donations/visits to universities, textbooks, biased media, and so on. Many still believe they have to earn it in a way that's about merit as an employee of the company. Thousands of years of human history showed nepotism, classism, and other rigging were main ways people got ahead. Then it suddenly is out of the equation for many analyzing success of modern elites. ;)




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