CEO Who Cut His Pay By $1M Details How The Stock Market Isn’t Connected To Reality And Pits The Rich Against The Poor

The stock market has been on everyone’s minds recently what with the meteoric rise (and then fall) of GameStop stocks, as well as the ongoing battle between millions of small investors from the r/wallstreetbets Reddit community and Wall Street. And with everyone trying to come to grips with what the stock market is and how it works, some people are, understandably, lost.

Especially when people start thinking about whether or not the stock market accurately represents the real value that companies hold. Do companies that perform essential services and respect their employees have a higher value on the stock market? Not necessarily.

In fact, that’s far from the case, as Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, argues in a viral Twitter thread. In his opinion, there’s no link between the stock market and reality and it’s a system based on the rich exploiting the poor.

Entrepreneur Dan Price, who sees his own employees as his equals, explained how the stock market isn’t connected to reality and has the rich exploiting the poor

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

You might remember Dan as the CEO and entrepreneur who cut his own pay by a million so that all of his employees could make at least 70k dollars per year. Bored Panda has written about Dan before. You can check out our previous posts about him right here, as well as here.

In his latest viral Twitter thread, which got 18.1k likes, Dan goes into example after example about how highly-valued companies that consistently screw over their employees (many of whom lost their jobs) end up rewarding their CEOs. In short, it’s the classic tale of the rich getting richer off the backs of the poor.

While Dan is correct that unemployment is a huge issue in the US, the situation there isn’t as bad now as it was at the start of the pandemic. Of course, that isn’t to say that people aren’t suffering: they’re losing their livelihoods and are worried about the future. However, currently, it’s nowhere near as bad as during the 14.7 percent unemployment rate peak in April 2020.

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

After going through Dan’s thread point by point, our blood pressure went through the roof because that sort of exploitation isn’t something you’d expect to see in civilized nations. However, business is business and, unfortunately, far too many CEOs are ready to trample over their everyday employees to get a big payout.

What do you think of Dan’s arguments, dear Pandas? Do you believe that the stock market is connected to reality? What can be done to change companies that reward their management at the cost of their employees?