We are, of course, amazed that our readers occasionally disagree with our brilliant and witty essays. In fact, sometimes quite a few readers think that The Outrage editors are wrong, misanthropic, idiotic, selfish, deluded, or all of the above.

Mother Outrage always told us that even the dull and the ignorant should have their say, so we've allowed space below for those dissenting opinions (and for shameless flattery).

As a current employee and slave to the corporate oil barons of Occidental, I had to reply to this Outrage pertaining to Dr. Irani.

We recently had a major restructuring of the company, and were all told there would be no future raises for anyone, but that "performance incentives" would be doled out in the event of a good business year.

Working for one of our "service-related" dept.'s, I'm interested to see what will come down my way.

Oxy is sorta crazy about its money...we just sold our pool car fleet "to cut costs", then went out and bought a new GulfStream jet (to compliment our fleet of 3 other aircraft)...or then there's the one about a company-wide memo generated in response to the company having to pay a $285 parking ticket...we probably spent that much in the wages of the author of the memo and the paper it was printed on.

Excess knows no limits here. Our new CEO for the local office here wasn't too happy with his office upon his arrival, so modifications were in order of course...to the tune of $40,000.

This while at the same time he was magnanimously turning down the option of having a company car (of 'course, who'd want to drive a pool car when you've got several luxury cars of your own).

Feel like a good meal? No brown baggin' it here, unless you want to...all lunches are catered (actually, I don't have a problem with this one...I like to eat too!).

Need a magazine published? We have a Multi-Media dept. that puts out material (including the annual stock report) of a calibre that would rival any major magazine publication. Now, as the new year dawns, we all (well, all of us except the company lawyers...

I've made it thru 4 lay-offs to this point, and have yet to see any of them get let go) are on thin ice, waiting to see who gets dumped in the latest (reorginization), so that Irani can get his money. Capitolism lives on.

Monopoly??? what is Tyson Chicken ( Arkansas based, and FOB&H...) I am told that the ONLY chicken products at any PX, BX, or whatever they want to call themselves is Tyson..Hmmm.... sonds like a whale of a contract, I wonder who helped negotiate it????

Yea! About time some one in the media wake up and give bill gates the kudos he so richly has earned by making the better widget.

If the government want to go on and get the monopolies there are plenty they just invent new words for them look at beatrice.

How can a person who makes like a million a week turn around and tell the guy who's skill the product is made is not worth a livable wage but by sitting on his>

He is worth more then the president of the u.s. while the company is losing money they cut the little guys wages and give the chief a bonus does this make sense?

The salary of CEOs like Ray Irani is not determined directly by the free market, or at least not by a free and efficient market. In other words, the services of management are not put out to auction. The salaries are determined by the three directors of the company who sit on the compensation committee, and are approved by the company's full board of directors.

Corporations work best when they are run by people like Bill Gates who have a substantial ownership stake, which is why smart investors always check to see if the managers are also owners.

When ownership and control are seperated you often get situations when the managers are simply taking out what they can get away with. In this case, and many others, the corporate structure has surely failed to protect the interests of the shareholders, who are the true owners of the company.

You started this DO talking about the "workings of free markets," yet focus on executive compensation. Are you saying these salaries weren't determined by the free market? Are you arguing against the corporate structure? (The old anti-capitalist Berle-Means thesis was that corporations corrupted the incentive structure by separating control and ownership.