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Dilbert reaches a startling conclusion: CEOs are underpaid!


Drawing on two unrelated studies, famed management guru Dilbert reaches a brilliant, although ironic conclusion: CEOs are underpaid. One study found that happiness makes people successful while another found that sad workers are the most productive. The brilliant leap in logic is as follows:

Now, if you were to describe the job of a CEO versus the job of a lower level worker, I think you might say the CEO needs to be successful (as opposed to productive) whereas the lower level worker needs to be productive (as opposed to successful) ...

So it follows from the science that grossly overpaying a CEO makes good sense. It allows the CEO to be happy, which increases his odds of success, which is good for the stockholders. And best of all, overpaying a CEO makes the workers sad, which makes them more productive, which is also good for the stockholders.

I actually know of at least a few public companies that appear to be operating under this management philosophy -- Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) comes to mind.

CNBC is developing an animated show -- no joke

When I read on our sister blog TV Squad that CNBC was developing an animated show, I couldn't believe it. Then again, this is the same TV network that thinks Donny Deutsch is a talk show host and that Maria Bartiromo is a journalist. Anything is possible.

Just to be clear, I am talking about a cartoon. Not the type of "animation" that viewers of Jim Cramer's Mad Money show regularly enjoy. I used to work for The Street.com, the company he co-founded, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that Cramer is almost as energetic in real life.

Getting back to the cartoon, CNBC's show is based on a comic strip called CEO Dad. I checked out the strip's Web site and found it amusing in a Dilbertish sort of way. The strip features the adventures of Frank Pitt, "President and CEO of Pitt Packaging International, the third largest manufacturer of Styrofoam peanuts in Bucks County, Pennsylvania."

I'm not smart enough to predict whether CEO Dad will be a smash hit. I didn't think Sanjaya Malakar would last on American Idol and the appeal of Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ:CROX) shoes eludes me.

This got me thinking what could be next for CNBC. Perhaps a musical version of Squawk Box? What about Cramer action figures? The possibilities are endless.

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Last updated: February 13, 2012: 06:07 PM

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