How Does Your Income Compare?

I first published this in early 2007, but it is even more relevant now, as this was BEFORE the economic meltdown. Updated to include a "Word History" on November 29, 2014. I also simply added a paragraph, almost intact, from another article from back then, as it fit perfectly with this subject. At that time George W. Bush was President. 

A couple of things caught my attention regarding recent reports on income in America. First, the CEO of Home Depot is leaving. He is getting a severance package worth 210 million dollars!!! From my understanding, he's being given the boot for the company NOT doing as well under his leadership. What would he have gotten if he had left the company having done a GOOD job?

Then, on the radio, I heard this info, but I don't believe a source was cited:
The average pay of an American CEO of a company with at least a billion dollars a year in sales is about $44,000 per day (rounded off ... thank God!). The average pay for American workers is around $35,000 per year. Please draw your own conclusions.

President George W. Bush recently said in an interview that corporate boards need to be more vigilant in oversight of CEO pay and benefits. The reaction has been that last week, one Wall Street company paid it's CEO $40 million (as Jethro Bodine, of the Beverly Hillbillies would say, "That's 40 comma... naught... naught... naught...comma...naught...naught...naught"). As if to further prove a point, this week, another Wall Street company paid it's CEO more than $50 million. I'm glad these companies have followed the President's advice. (Generally gleaned from CNBC, December 2006)

WORD HISTORY:
Ween-This is NOT the same word as "wean," which means, "to get used to, get accustomed to, to gradually become independent of," but they are distantly related from long ago. English has a noun and verb form of this word, although both have unfortunately become archaic, but you never know when words may make a comeback, or when you may encounter old forms in poetry or old writings. "Ween" goes back to Indo European "wen," which had the notion of "to wish, to desire, to strive for, to expect." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "wenjanan," which had the meanings "to hope, to imagine, to expect." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wenan," with the same general meanings, but also with the notion behind these meanings of "to believe unrealistically, have unreal expectations." This then became "wenen," before "ween" became the standard form. Old Germanic also had the noun form "wenaz," which meant "an expectation, a hope." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wena/wen," with the same meanings, but also "incorrect expectation, false hope." This then became "wene," before "ween" became the standard. Forms of "ween" in the other Germanic languages have suffered a decline in usage too, except: German has the verb "wähnen" (to falsely imagine) in limited use, and the much more common noun "Wahn" (delusion, mania), Dutch has the limited use verb "wanen" (to falsely imagine) and the noun "waan" (delusion). Low German Saxon has "wahn," an adverb meaning "angry," which goes to a state of mind, too.