this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2024
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Economics

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Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun was awarded a giant stock bonus on top of his more-than-a-million-dollar salary last year, despite overseeing a company that has been plagued by chronic losses and safety problems.

Calhoun’s total compensation in 2023 was $32.8 million, a 45% increase from the $22.6 million he received for 2022. And it could have been a lot more: He declined to accept his annual incentive bonus of $2,800,000 – a request the board said he made after part of a Boeing 737 Max plane blew off the side of an Alaska Airlines flight in January, kicking off a series of federal investigations, a temporary grounding, executive ousters and another embarrassing public relations blunder for the company.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Really fantastic work as CEO, assassinating the guy who was going to testify is a super bold choice on his part.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

When you’re too big to fail they just let you murder your whistleblowers

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah feels like Dragon Ball Z where a character goes into a new whole level of Super Saiyan that you didn’t know existed except a lot less cool.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

$32.8 million seems like a bit of an overpay. I mean sure, he was able to maximize shareholder value, but parts falling off of planes in mid-flight and dead whistle blowers may have an impact on future earnings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I'm waiting for the front to fall off of one.

The front is not expected to fall off, to make that clear.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I don't understand why Boeing isn't seen as a monopoly. If they had competition in the market they would have to at least up their game a little.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They are a government and defense contractor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

That's what I'm getting at. Why is the only passenger plane manufacturer in the US also one of the biggest defense contractors?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They do have competition, it's called Airbus.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but Airbus isn't an American company and that means most of the planes flying where I live are Boeing made. I couldn't find any way to ride on an Airbus on my most recent flight. I personally don't think that should matter, but it clearly does for American owned airlines.

That still only leaves 2 companies on the planet that make passenger planes. Not much competition.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

making effective passenger aircraft simply isn’t economically viable. Both boeing and airbus as well as their competitors in Embraer and whatever the chinese have are all subsidized by their respective governments.

For an insight on the economics and process I liked this article https://www.construction-physics.com/p/a-cycle-of-misery-the-business-of

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Poor guy. Hopefully he's able to make ends meet. May be we can setup a GoFundMe for him.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And as per usual, manager comes in, tripples profit by hollowing out company. Manager then jumps out with a golden parachute right before or when shit hits the fan, leaving it to someone else to cleanup the shit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

If I would fly with one of his planes I'd prefer to have a parachute as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What a lightweight. Doesn't even get half of what a certain website's CEO received.

[–] profoundninja 2 points 8 months ago

While 32M is a stupid amount of money for a person to make. I'm actually surprised it isn't more, there are way more egregious imbalances of CEO pay.