Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown

Why Corporations Pay Millions for Executive Mediocrity

Most people believe the American economy is being rigged by and for bankers, CEOs, and other superrich elites, because… well, because it is! With their hired armies of lawmakers, lobbyists, lawyers, and the like, they fix the economic rules so even-more of society’s money and power flows uphill to them. Take corporate CEOs. While the economy somewhere between a downer and devastating for most people, the CEO class made out like bandits, with each of the three top paid corporate honchos pocketing as much as a billion dollars in personal pay! Are they geniuses, or what? What. All three of their corporations ended with big financial losses and declining value. So how can such mediocrity produce such lavish rewards? Simple – rig the pay machine. Today’s corporate system of setting compensation for top executives is a flimflam disguised as a model of management rectitude. On its face, it sounds good – “Pay for performance,” it’s called, meaning the CEO does well if the company does well. But who defines “doing well?” The scam at most major corporations is that the standard of corporate performance that the chief must meet to quality for a huge payday is set by each corporation’s board of directors. Guess who they are? Commonly, board members are the CEO’s handpicked brothers-in-law, golfing buddies, and corporate cronies. So, they set the bar for winning multimillion-dollar executive paychecks so low that a sack of concrete could jump over it. This is Jim Hightower saying, well, can’t corporate shareholders just vote no on any executive excess? Yes, but corporate rules decree that votes by shareholders are merely advisory, meaning top executives can ignore them, grab the money, and run. The system is fixed and we need to break it! Do something! There’s a growing movement to crack down on excessive CEO pay that has us pretty excited— check out this resource guide from Inequality.org [https://inequality.org/action/corporate-pay-equity/] to join up! Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

The Reality of the Virtual Metaverse

Our future was pronounced dead last week. I mean that glorious future of The Metaverse, promised to us by Silicon Valley’s tech and financial geniuses. Just a decade ago, they were promising us that by now we’d all be playing, working, and relating as digital avatars of ourselves, living out our lives in a phantasmagoric new world of virtual reality. They boldly proclaimed that the next Big Thing in tech [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2021/oct/29/facebook-gives-a-glimpse-of-metaverse-its-planned-virtual-reality-world-video], replacing smart phones and all other personal devices would be a “Metaverse,” digitally connecting everyone everywhere. They exclaimed that by purchasing goofy-looking, reality-augmenting headsets, interactions could be done without any in-person human contact. And who better to sell this future than the super-goofy gabillionaire, Mark Zuckerberg? The CEO of Facebook, he was so bedazzled by the digital hokum of the metaverse that he even renamed his corporation “Meta.” Then he pumped a whopping $80 billion into developing and marketing his wondrous new world, including peddling a Meta brand of those magical headsets. Not wanting to miss out on a bonanza, other tech billionaires geniuses joined the virtual reality rush. But it was just fool’s gold, for the geniuses had failed to consider an essential factor: Customers. Far from dazzled, buyers pronounced the meta-mess: goofy. Even Zuckerberg has now pulled the plug on his fantasy [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/technology/mark-zuckerbergs-metaverse-vr-horizon-worlds.html] of a digital, virtual, immersive, avatar world of tech “reality.” Don’t think, however, that goofy, avaricious, egomaniacal billionaires have gained any modesty from their Metaverse misadventure. They are the same ones now hurling [https://jimhightower.substack.com/p/ai-data-center-hucksters-wouldnt]trillions [https://jimhightower.substack.com/p/ai-data-center-hucksters-wouldnt] of public and corporate dollars into erecting intrusive, massive, wasteful AI data centers all across America. [https://jimhightower.substack.com/p/ai-data-center-hucksters-wouldnt] Why? To power their profiteering fantasy of replacing humans with AI bots. Do something! Has Big Tech got you down? Ensuring emerging technologies are safe, useful and accessible can feel daunting, but here are 2 great organizations who’ve been fighting for our rights for a long time: * Electronic Frontier Foundation: eff.org [https://act.eff.org/action] * Fight for the Future: fightforthefuture.org [https://www.fightforthefuture.org/projects] On the AI data center front, our friend Clayton Tucker [https://substack.com/profile/133947427-clayton-tucker], who is running for Agriculture Commissioner here in Texas [https://www.claytontuckertx.com/], has made this issue a centerpiece of his campaign— these data centers are being forced upon rural areas all over the country. Follow along with his campaign to see how the fights are being won. [https://www.claytontuckertx.com/] Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Birds of Greed Flocking to Florida’s Tax-Free Nests

Oh, gosh, there goes another one – another billionaire “flighty bird,” angrily flitting away from the home nest that long nurtured him. This latest one is Howard Schultz, the high-flying avaricious avian who tucked away a multibillion-dollar personal fortune as the monopolistic, exploitative CEO of the Starbucks coffee chain. Howard has recently fallen into a deep pout over the downright rudeness he says he’s received from officials in his home base of Washington State. What’s his gripe? Haven’t you heard, he squawks, the state legislature intends to make rich corporatists like me start paying income taxes! Indeed, Washington is one of only nine states with no income tax, even on billionaires. Instead, to fund public needs, it relies on regressive sales taxes paid by poor and middle-income consumers. So, in an overdue stand for fairness and the Common Good, the state is levying a minimal tax on those few elites who haul in [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/washington-millionaires-tax-bezos-schultz.html]more than a million bucks a year [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/washington-millionaires-tax-bezos-schultz.html] – with the money going to such crucial public needs as child care. But damn the need, Billionaire Schultz is foot-stomping furious that he would have to pay his fair share for the upkeep of the state that has helped him thrive. So, Howard has taken flight, winging clear across the country to Florida, where the right-wing governor and legislature shields the rich from pesky taxes. [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/us/washington-millionaires-tax-bezos-schultz.html] Proving that “Birds of a feather flock together,” the aristocratic chieftains of such other corporate fiefdoms as Amazon, Meta, and Google are also now nesting in Florida’s tax-evasion enclaves. When billionaires declare “We’re all in this together” – they don’t mean you me – only themselves and their tax lawyers. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Oh, the Horror! Billionaires Threatened with Taxation!

We Americans are barraged these days with multiple crises, so, I hate to add anything else to our list of worries. But I’m told this one is an epic disaster, so we must respond! It started in California, and one financial leader there now calls it “the greatest tragedy this state has ever felt.” Holy Titanic! What can it be? Uh… it’s a tax. Does that mean it would add to the burden of hard-hit poor and middle-class families? No, it wouldn’t apply to them at all, or even to mere millionaires. Rather, it’s a ballot initiative to put a one-time wealth tax on the über-rich – [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_California_One-Time_Wealth_Tax_for_State-Funded_Health_Care_Programs_Initiative]the billionaire class [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_California_One-Time_Wealth_Tax_for_State-Funded_Health_Care_Programs_Initiative]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_California_One-Time_Wealth_Tax_for_State-Funded_Health_Care_Programs_Initiative] Indeed, only about 200 royally rich California folks would pay anything under this proposal. But those billionaires are squealing like stuck pigs, and they’ve hired hoards of lobbyists, lawyers, PR flacks, and front groups to try killing the proposal. [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/18/google-sergey-brin-california-billionaire-tax] Such overprivileged plutocratic ninnies as Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg have even declared that, By Gollies, they will just pack up and leave California if required to pay a pittance of their fortunes to support the basic needs of common people. Californians, though, seem not to care. In recent surveys, only 28 percent of the state’s voters oppose the wealth tax. Indeed, nationwide, 60 percent of us want billionaire tax dodgers to start paying their fair share. People are sick of the greed of… well let’s call them what they are: The filthy rich. There’s a fast-spreading attitudinal shift from the right-wing’s long insistence that the rich are to be admired and coddled. Instead, majorities today are reconnecting to the eternal truth that “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Let’s Stop Demonizing DEI, and Start Achieving It

At last, someone with some common sense in their head, some basic humanity in their heart, and some fundamental democratic values in their soul – is speaking out. Many someones, actually. Indeed, a coalition of dozens of progressive groups representing millions of Americans is uniting in straightforward populist opposition to the far-out right wing’s loopy assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Bizarrely, Trump’s menagerie of extremist Republican politicos has been waging a furious war against these basic egalitarian ideals, trying to turn DEI into a partisan bugaboo. That’s goofy and ultimately self-defeating, for they are asking voters to reject their lifelong admiration for these positive social goals. Consider the value of D, E, and I: One, diversity. That’s “us,” the marvelous mix of common people, cultures, and beliefs that gives America vitality and resilience. Two, equity. That’s just another word for “fairness,” so why do they want to demonize that? Three, inclusion. Hello – that’s what “democracy” means – we all belong and our voice matters. Yet, the Trumpians are using brute authoritarianism to try ripping these core democratic values out of the fabric of our society. And, pathetically, many major corporate powers, universities, media outlets, and other institutions that ought to stand against these Orwellian dictates, have pusillanimously capitulated, hoping the GOP’s imperious regime will reward them with financial favors. When institutions fail the people, We the People have to rise up. That’s the momentous rallying cry of some 70 nationwide groups of gutsy democracy fighters organized by Color of Change to stand up for the invaluable Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that make America… America! To connect, go to ColorOfChange.org [http://ColorOfChange.org]. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]