Hooboy we need to see more of this

The International Brotherhood of Electric Workers is suing Goldman Sachs for overpaying its executives.

That may seem odd–what do electricians have to do with Goldman Sachs, after all–but unions have pension funds, and the pension funds own stocks, and stocks represent ownership of companies. Companies like Goldman Sachs. So when the managers of GS enrich themselves at the expense of the company (they paid themselves 47% of the year’s profits, or maybe only 36%, according to the article–either way it’s a lot), they’re cheating the shareholders and the shareholders can sue.

Don’t get me wrong—the idea that big companies belong to the shareholders, that the managers work for the shareholders alone, and that nobody else—not workers, not local communities, not the public—has say in the matter, is one of the most pernicious bits of ideology ever foisted on the public.

But as long as that is the ideology, by all means let’s use it for good as well as evil. When managers pay themselves insane amounts of money, let’s send them to jail like the thieves they are.