Excessive Executive Salaries - The Cause for Moral Decline: Sri Sathya Sai Perspective

People should not assume that education is for a mere living. On the contrary, education is for life and not for mere living. Animals, birds and beasts are also living. To which educational institutions have they gone? What formal schooling did they undergo? If education is for the sake of livelihood alone, then education is not required. The education that people receive must become useful for others in society. One’s life must turn out to be an ideal life. Unfortunately, today’s youth pursuing business studies, dream to secure good jobs in the corporate world, occupy big managerial positions, earn fat salaries and lead a luxurious life. This is not the only purpose of existence.

If one wishes to increase one’s salary, then what is one required to do? Today, production is gradually declining. Declining production causes an increase in prices. When prices increase, salaries also increase. When salaries (resulting in excess purchasing power in the hands of people leading to conspicuous consumption and extravagant life styles) increase beyond a safe limit, morality decreases in society. When morality declines in society, the world will face problems. What is the reason for the decline in morality? Very high compensation packages are the cause for the decline of human values in society. Each one has to question oneself whether one’s work corresponds to the value of one’s salary.

In the factories today, the expenditure is increasing significantly. The reason is that because of decline in morality, the spirit of work is lost in man. In India, there does not appear to be appropriate work ethics. This is the reason why prices are increasing. If people compare Japan and India, they can easily make out the difference between these two countries. The Japanese have the right attitude towards work. They work very hard and consequently, the productivity increases. Whether it is a watch, soap or a transistor, the Japanese try to make it at a low cost. All the daily needs cost very little in Japan. The reason is the spirit at work. As against this backdrop, employees in other nations want to earn more salary, but are not willing to increase the amount of production. Due to such a mind-set, the Indian economic situation is gradually deteriorating. Educated people are not prepared to accept every job that is offered to them. There are millions of educated youth now available in the job market. To how many people can the government give jobs? They do not have sufficient money to meet the salary bills of the existing workforce on pay rolls. A further increase in salaries would have unfavourable impact on government exchequer.

There are other flaws in business. When work is carried out without any regard to truth and morality, it may run without any problems for some time, but tough times are bound to follow. Managers are paid huge salaries so that they would be subservient before the Directors. The Directors too would not expose the shortcomings in the management. In reality the person who ventures to point out the deficiencies in management is a true organisational man. There may be educated and accomplished people among the directors on the Board, but they are made silent for various reasons. There are associations and societies which permit elected officials to enter into activities like advertising. Instead of giving publicity to worthy items in the market, they give room for politics because of which the social environment is getting vitiated.

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