…But that is no reason to have national policy guided by their ignorance.

So writes Thomas Sowell.

Democrats carp incessantly about executive pay. (Unless the exec is Franklin Delano Raines who got rich running Freddie Mae into the ground. In his case, Republicans were accused of “lynching” by asking for regulation.)

There are lousy executives and brilliant executives. The problem for “most people” is they cannot see why top execs are tops. In sports, fans can see why Kobe Bryant pulls down his millions. They probably understand why Phil Jackson does, too.

A coach is an executive and not all coaches are equal. Bill Parcells has made every football teach he’s coached better. Which is why he always has a job waiting for him.

Should the government decide how much Kobe or Parcells gets paid by locking in their salaries as a percentage of the wages paid the towel boy? No, and neither should busybody Democrats stick their noses into corporate business.

Back to Sowell:

People who say that they cannot understand how CEOs in general get so many millions of dollars seem not to realize what a trivial thing they are saying. Most people do not understand most things. But that is no reason to have national policy guided by their ignorance.

I do not understand one percent of what there is to understand about the very computer on which these words are being written– nor about the Internet on which these words will be transmitted to the syndicate that distributes this column. I don’t have a clue about how a syndicate is run, much less how much someone should be paid for running it.

What really sets some people off is the fact that a CEO who has mismanaged some corporation into losing billions of dollars is rewarded with a severance package worth millions.

Think about it. If the CEO’s decisions are costing the company billions, it is a bargain to get him out the door immediately for millions, rather than having his departure delayed by either internal struggles or battles in the courts.

It is the same principle if you are married to someone who is impossible to live with. The divorce may cost far more than the marriage– and still be worth every cent of it.

But what about the “social justice” of it all?

Such questions seem to carry great weight with people who act as if they are God on Judgment Day. But one of the little overlooked differences between themselves and God on Judgment Day is that God does not have to worry about what is going to happen the day after Judgment Day.

Rewarding someone for being impossible to live with may offend our feelings, just as rewarding someone for mismanaging a company does. But the real question is– what is the alternative and how will that alternative affect the future?

Politically imposed limits on the pay of CEOs is one of the most penny-wise and pound-foolish things that can be done. The difference between a top-notch CEO and a second-rate CEO can be billions of dollars on the bottom line.