I would like to see what the lower wage employees in the company are making what kind of health benefits they have and what kind of bonus package they are getting for a hard days work. If he is taking care of all of his employees then I will be happy for him if he is not, I hope he burns in hell with all these other high paid CEO that get rich on the back of hardworking people.

These "comments" are all commercials. Who is in charge of this activity. Can't you weed them out? If we wanted to read commercials, we would look elsewhere, not in the AOL news. Whser is the honesty? Where is the pride? Where is the integrity? Where is the respect for people who want to discuss the article? Why do people sell their integrity so cheaply?

I well say this, that the people at the top are the cause of all our problems, what makes them think there isn't some one out there that well except loess for the same work. Big Companies are killing off middle America, because they don'tr have the name and exp doesn't mean they can't do the work.
I don't believe any of you are worth nothing like you recieve. My children could go through college 3 times for what you get. You just don't care about America.

No one could (or should) be worth that much money
unless he owned all (100%) of the company.
Makes you sick.................

Great! More power to him! Would that I had invested a few thousands with Schwartzman and Blackstone, instead of the Michael Armstrong's AT&T, Rich McGinn's Lucent, Conseco, and a long list of other "safe, sane and solid" US firms - none of which were any of the preceding. Bottom line: don't complain if you were not smart enough to invest with the winner. Take a deep breath, and try to learn from the missed opportunity.

I hate to admit it, but this guy helped build this company, so if it does well and it doesn't violate any laws, I'll just have to envy his good fortune. Why does everyone hate those that are wealthy so much? I mean, the guy helped build a billion dollar company from the ground up. Why shouldn't he be wealthy? Sadly, whats wrong with America is that a significant portion of the population has a sense of entitlement. We have gotten greedy. We want all the fancy, hi-tech gadgets but we don't want to spend a lot for them so we buy foreign products which in turn causes the loss of American jobs because the unions have negotiated higher wages and benefits for the workers and the American company can't sell the same product as cheap as the foreign competition. For the most part, the middle class has always struggled. Why would all of the sudden, we be able to continue our lifestyles and be comfortable at the same time?

Everyone wants a share of this guys money. But did YOU take the risks he took? Did you get his education? Do you spend one-half of the time he spends at his job? I'm betting he's a 70+ hours a week kind of guy. He enjoys life to the fullest WHEN he takes the time but for the most part, I'm betting the guys always working. It's his family and those closest to him that get to enjoy the fruits of his labor rather than him.
Sure, he should pay his employees a living wage. This is a morality issue rather than a governmental one. There should be an unwritten rule:
If you can afford a house, then your employees should be able to afford a decent apartment.
If you can afford to buy a new car, then your employees should be able to buy a decent used one.
If you can afford health insurance for yourself, then by damned you should give your employees the same benefit.
If you can afford to go away for a vacation, then your employees should at least "get" a paid vacation.
And if you can afford a McMansion, then your employees should be able to afford a small home or condo if they choose.
Those on top need to make certain there truly is a "trickle-down" in the business world.
Still....shame on people for taking multiple billions of dollars per year. We get down on business people for doing this but why not hit on actors and actresses and others in show business who are doing the same and sometimes more? Didn't Jack Nicholsen get something like 50 million for playing the Joker in a Batman movie including a share of profits from toys, DVDs, etc? THAT is shameful.

We should had protected the free enterprise system long ago. No decent man in the United States CEO or high ranking officer at any corporation should be allowed to make more than $ 100,000 per year. In my opinion they are crooks after money , illicit sex for many of them and are a disgrace to freedom and in this case the United States of America or the world for that fact. We should also pass laws restricting their money earning just like there is minimum wage there should be maximun wage.

And you creeps put Opah down what a joke

First of all, what Hector proposes is socialism; and the US wouldn't have thrived if it had been injected into our society years ago. Another factor contributing to America's success has always been greed, which most writers failed to mention at all. It is the ONE reason why our country must eventually fail. No person, no matter how wealthy, ever THINKS he has enough! The admirable CEO described deserves every penny under our system. Now if he is sensible enough to live in a home much more modest than his income "entitles" him to--unlike almost everyone reading these words right now--he will truly be an American hero!

ya these people are the ones killing america...to me it doesn't matter anymore i am old...i do not contribute to america...america..the land of communism and control...

Poor fella took a pay reduction, down from 4.77 billion in 2007. Sounds crazy, look it up, AFL-CIO Executive watch

And everyone thought Simon on American Idol made to much LOL. Their pay could feed a country.

These guys better watch out, Obama and his band of radical anti american socialists will soon be dictating their salaries like they want to dictate everything in our lives. Afterall, the lazy guy and the illegal has just as much right to a fortune as the guy that builds his from the ground up right? It's time to spread the wealth, time to put some skin in the game as Joe Biden says. What a miserable direction we are going in.

How much of this is stolen stimulus money? Bush and Obama seem to be dueling for the best title of WORST PREZ. EVER. I think Obama is going to win. He does not have a legal birth cert., which means he is governing completely outside of the Constitution. And our idiot Supreme Court does nothing.

I'm all for capitalism, but substantial cut backs should start at the top not the bottom. More and more companies are laying off and/or 'restructuring' and eliminating lower level employees (usually the people who need their jobs the most) with minimal financial effect to the top executives.
While the $40k a year secretaries, managers, etc. are losing their incomes the $400k a year executives lose nothing. They continue to receive huge salaries, with matching bonuses, expense accounts, travel & entertainment budgets, etc. Companies get away with it because for every 10 people who wouldn't take the low paying job there are 100+ people waiting in line for it and they know that. Within in every company anyone outside of executive management is disposable.
Corporate greed is just as rampant in international companies as it is in American companies. All of the executives I've worked for were very well compensated and every single one of them was so greedy I think they probably lost sleep at night if they thought they hadn't listed even the most minimal receipt on their expense report! My last boss ( a RAGING s.o.b.), in addition to his six figure salary just under a million dollars, would submit expense reports for every nickel - honestly, he made sure he was reimbursed for a $1.69 cup of coffee. (Though the best was a receipt from a parking meter for 50 CENTS.)
Companies should be required to withhold executive bonuses and cut salaries from the CEO on down by 30% before they're allowed to lay off employees or 'eliminate' positions.
Wouldn't it be nice if the 'minimum wage' a company could pay any employee was based upon a percentage of the top executives TOTAL compensation?! I bet Schwartzman's secretary doesn't even make $70,000 a year, much less $700,000 - and he's taking home $700+MILLION. If a company can afford to pay an executive $700+ million it can certainly afford to retain and pay it's lower level employees more generously.

These hogs are ruining everything, for everyone! It's inconceiveable that anyone could THINK they actually EARNED money like this! This bozo took the equivalent of 6,300 GREAT jobs out of the economy, at a time when we deperately NEED them! Another way to look at it is as 12,600 GOOD jobs, or 31,500 AVERAGE jobs, the kind MOST people have these days! It's time to RAISE the INCOME TAXES BACK TO WHERE THEY USED to be, to bring some sanity back! Otherwise, these idiots are going to ride this country DOWN IN FLAMES!

In a Capitalist world it's not about work. It's all about greed. If the disparity between the top paid CEO and the average front-line employee is in the millions, I see a HUGE problem. It depletes the well-being of others when the CEO's piece of the pie is that big. The average CEO earned 20 times the average employee in the 1980s. 20 years later, the average CEO earns 430+++ times more than the average employee. How did CEOs become so deserving? Why is it that we think products have become too expensive to manufacture because employees are asking for too much? Aren't the CEOs asking too much? When a CEO earns hundreds of millions but can't afford to pay employees and must send manufacturing to other countries to make a product more affordable, the real message is that the CEO wants the biggest piece of pie he can cut. THAT is pure greed. The balance has tipped too far. Last time I looked, the definition of democracy was defined as a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges. Corrupted Capitalists continue to buy their way into Washington. The more the balance tips, the more we lose our democracy. It's a kleptocracy. We really shouldn't tolerate this drift toward an economic apartheid society.

THE BIG DIFFERENCE here is that it is his company. Generally I would say no one is worth that much, can't think of any one living or dead who is worth a salary like that. However, I don't have a problem with some one making that much from their own company. Unless they are gouging someone to make it. What bank was it that paid a guy 33+million in bonus's for a bank that went under? That was a publicly held bank also, with an obligation to stockholders and the stock was less than or around a dollar. They say they have obligations to stockholders but who gets dividends any more? They are never worth counting, the only value stocks have to the consumers is if people are playing that stock and hopefully you get out before they are done playing it. So what does Blackstone do? It would be nice if they were a bank lending money, the real estate market might pickup if people could get a loan. Lets see what the others are making.

Holledoll said. TRICKLE DOWN, that is DEAD WRONG, what you stated if he can afford a house in ___ then his employees should be able to at least afford a house or condo ____. The cars & health plan & vacation are not trickle downs, don't believe that crap. The trickle down is the theory that only AFTER the hogs on top have taken all they can carry a little bit may have gotten away hence the 'trickled down' any trickling is really a mistake in their eyes. The real way to have a good economy is for the employees to be paid fair salary's and wages, then expenses are paid, then stockholders, then top brass gets paid bonus's only after everything is paid. When these companies pay their employees decently (all of them) every one has money and commerce can continue. When they start squeezing the guys at the bottom (the most people) then they immediately stop the largest group from buying and there goes the economy. This is SUCH a simple lesson but one the biggest pigs and hogs just can't get. So like some one else said they should burn in hell.