I think this article made clear that Fortune 500 CEOs are getting paid a lot --- more than in the past. For example, "So while boards are still willing to dole out huge golden parachutes to C.E.O.’s, even if they fail, they’ve become much more generous with money than they are with additional time."
But just like any form of 'money,' it's not just dollars. Money is a form of status, but so is power, reputation, stocks, and more. It seems like 'staying power' would be a truer form of status than 'cash' alone.
Frank Underwood once said: "Money is the Mc-mansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power is the old stone building that stands for centuries." Not that he is real or anything, but it's a powerful quote.
CEOs may have shorter durations, but that may be illusory in that they can be engaged in a revolving door between companies or the public/private/academic sectors. I'm also not too impressed by the article's talk about opulent offices seeming old-fashioned - opulence is relative, and a personal Gulfstream, however spartan, that one is riding to one's mansion in Tahiti is far more opulent than some marble floors or dumbwaiters in Michigan. If Jeff Bezos has a table made of a door from Home Depot (cough) does that make him any less baronial? Compensation, however, and cases like Snap going public with 100% non-voting shares are far more indicative of the true power of CEOs than some office design or hamhandedly publicly bloviating & dabbling in politics (rather than donating behind the scenes).
Maybe one of the reasons why they have lost political power is that the most profitable companies today employ much less people than before, as mentioned in the article. Or at least they employ less people in their own country. A huge workforce is a lot of votes.
