The thing is, this applies to all of the non-CEO staff as well. Without them, the company would not stay afloat. If anything, they risked their capital (ie the labor-producing bodies) more than any CEO. And all of this in an economic system where capital risk is ostensibly rewarded.
CEOs make important decisions... acquisions, mergers, layoffs, expanding, shrinking, key partnerships, etc... or entirely changing the direction of the company.
Laborers do important work. Without them the company produces nothing. We could go back and forth with this. And for one reason: it doesn't matter what the CEO does or doesn't do. There is something else that matters much more than any of that.
And I am not (at least, not here) attempting to argue that a) they do not do a worthwhile job, or b) they should not be well-paid. Merely that the relationship between their pay and the pay of their employees should not be so drastically out of balance.
