>But the money the top execs get is not coming out of your pocket. If you are a stockholder, fine, make the argument. But the only way they get to pass this on is through prices and that effects demand. As to their workers, wages are not set by dividing up some pool of money so if the CEO gets it they don't. If the CEO didn't get it it would be reinvested ( arguable more valuable than CEO compensation ) or would go to the shareholders. But the internal workings of the corp are OOP - there are only some methods and properties that have external relevance. How it is done internally shouldn't matter to the outside.

Except when it does. You see, the shareholders may just likely push for higher wages for their employees (to reduce turnover and hemorrhaging the knowledge base, to save on internal theft, to attract the talent, to increase the quality of service) as an investment. Whether these vessels are connected or not is a matter of presentation and decision, not a rule. If the CEO didn't get it, it may as well go to healthcare, or salaries, or hiring more people, or as a dividend. Either way, the CEO cannot be a customer to too many businesses, so it doesn't really trickle down widely.

If that money was spread on the workers (and even those who associate at Walmart but aren't called workers), they would, being the ignorant unwashed lot, spend it. Or even worse, they may use it to get out of debt and then start spending for real. And my customers would, oh horrors, get some of that money, and they may finally go for that upgrade to n+1th version of my app. So it does affect me, and it's not the first time. I already went through one of those cycles where I had a lot of customers but they didn't make enough to pay the regular maintenance, not to mention upgrades.

Henry Ford knew that if his workers couldn't afford to buy what they were making, he'd never sell enough to make a profit. Where was this wisdom lost?