I was watching CNN this morning (I know, I know... but you should see the alternatives on daytime TV in Canada) and they were asking if it was fair that an executive from Lehman Bros should pocket over $300 million when stockholders got nothing on its collapse.
I never thought I'd say this, but yes, within the crazy system that is capitalism, you take what you can. The whole motivation is greed, and he worked the system perfectly. After all, he was they employee. The stockholders should have been scrutinizing their employees performance. If you pay the guy £300 million and then don't keep an eye on what he's doing in your name, then it's your own hard luck. Since I'm sure their approach was to not look to carefully, if at all, so long as the (short term) cash came rolling in, I have even less sympathy.
Whether it's a sensible system that pays people millions a year for a simple desk job, is another matter. Is anyone's work really worth $26 million a year? It's not even as if he has to pay the money back if he gets it wrong (which would help, and why people are whinging now).