Huge Paydays for Poor Performance:

Sometime in this coming baseball off season, the fabled A-Rod, stalwart third baseman currently for the New York Yankees will likely sign a ten-year contract for $300 million. Folks like my father will shake their heads in disbelief that a guy can be paid that kind of money to play a game.

But how about those business executives who receive hundreds of millions of dollars to do nothing? I'm talking about the huge payouts given to CEOs as exit pay when poor performance is rendered:

Merrill Lynch's E. Stanly O'Neal will reportedly be paid $159 million dollars if he's ousted after losing the company $8.4 billion. (That's right, with a "B.")

Pfizer's Henry A. McKinnell, Jr. collected $200 million to leave his company last year.

Morgan Stanley's Phillip J. Purcell left that company and received $114 million the year before.

In the meantime, the average working stiff has seen her or his income fall throughout the Bush administration's tenure in the White House. (Figures for this entry are from today's New York Times.)