Well, the majority of people don't just work for a paycheck, but if you do then great, you are in the minority. The reason the CEO is paid differently is the responsibility they must bear because ultimately the buck stops with them. If the decision to outsource ends up disastorous for for the company, they certainly won't be punishing the guy who left the comment in the suggestion box, but you can be sure the shareholders will take notice of the CEO and his career could be ruined with one bad decision. Of course if being a CEO were so easy, then why wouldn't every company grow as fast as Google? Why wouldn't every company focus on building shareholder value over the long-term if it were so easy to do? Why wouldn't every company produce record earnings every year? Why was hank Greenburg so successful and Martin Sullivan so bad? Why was Jack Welch so good and Jeffrey Immelt just mediocre? Because the job is damn difficult, plain and simple.
For the record, Richard Fuld's accomplishments:
Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Chairmen and CEO of Lehman Brothers
At the age of 37 Fuld became the supervisor of both the fixed-income and the equities divisions, overseeing all trading at Lehman
Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of The Partnership for New York City
International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and The Business Council
Board of Trustees of Middlebury College
Board of Trustees NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Board of Directors of the Robin Hood Foundation
Air Force Pilot
#1 CEO in the Brokers & Asset Managers category, 2006 & 2004
Named to Barron's "The World's Most Respected CEOs" list every year of its existence
Married, 3 children
Part-Time MBA while working at Lehman - NYU Stern
BS - Colorado
Since I'm not his biographer, I'm not going any deeper than this, but I believe my point is made.