The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

the early 1960s George Romney was a titan of business, the chairman and CEO of American Motors, and he was compensated handsomely. In 1960, his top-paid year, he made just over $661,000 (roughly $5.5 million today). Nevertheless, he also frequently turned down bonuses and pay raises that he viewed as excessive. In 1960, for example, he refused a $100,000 bonus, and in a five-year period he turned down a total of $268,000 (roughly 20 percent of his total earnings during the period). He feared the effects that overcompensation could have on executives: Overly generous pay could lead to “the temptations to success [that] could distract people from more important matters.”122 Moreover, he paid over a third of his income in taxes. Fifty years later, his son Mitt pulled in $21.7 million in 2010, roughly four times his father’s peak income. Of this, he paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent, roughly one third the rate his father had paid. We know of no evidence Mitt has ever voluntarily returned any of his compensation, though he and his wife gave away $3 million in charitable donations in 2010, including $1.5 million to the Mormon Church. During the presidential campaign of 2012 he said, “There are 47% of the people… who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims.… These are people who pay no income tax.… And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” Wh...