President Obama, late last week, made the point that executive compensation has gotten out of hand and that he plans on having the federal government step in in cases of abuse when such companies are the recipients of federal dollars. Fair enough, I suppose! I’ve written about those obscene bonuses before.

But hey! Whatever happened to the business owners? I’m talking about all of us who own shares in those companies! We’re the ones who should be curtailing the rip-offs of the companies we own, not the government!

All of us who invest receive proxies from each company whose shares we own—even if we have only one share to vote. Most of the time, most of us just vote with the sitting directors figuring, I suppose, that the companies are doing fine with the status quo—well enough to have earned our favor.

But. suppose we took just a little extra effort and scrutinized each proxy we receive to see what kind of money the executives of the companies we own are making. And, if we think the combination of salary, options, and other compensation is exorbitant, how about we deliberately cast a vote to replace every incumbent we have an opportunity to replace!

I’ll bet, if enough of us bothered to do that, they might just get the message! What do you think?

s Food for Thought, Fundamental Investment Views board of directors, fired, golden parachute, obscene compensation, overpaid executives, Shareholder rebellion