War and the concentration of wealth

Title: War Profiteers
Source: Center for corporate policy

From the article:

"Many of the companies that have received Iraq reconstruction contracts award their top executives pay packages that are 30 to 175 times as much as a U.S. army general with 20 years experience, and nearly 2,000 times the pay of entry-level soldiers. Congress should keep in mind the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who, in the aftermath of WWII said, 'I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster.' For more information about curbing CEO pay for war contractors click here. Also see the 'War Profiteering Prevention Act' (H.R. 3673) introduced by Rep. Emanuel (D-IL). "

This article lists total CEO compensation (2002) at several of the U.S. companies performing work in Iraq:

• Halliburton -- $7.3 million
• Northrop Grumman -- $9.2 million
• Fluor -- $4.5 million
• Lockheed Martin -- $25.4 million
• Motorola -- $11.8 million
• Lucent Technologies -- $20.8 million (truly amazing given the performance of Lucent around 2002)
• Bechtel -- ["Data not available – privately owned firm. CEO was 51st richest American in 2003, worth an estimated $3.2 billion."]

Money is collected from taxpayers and then flows to these companies, which overcharge so they can pay these incredible salaries for their executive teams. The concentration of wealth is automatic.