We’ve all shaken our heads in awe at the gargantuan fortunes of the richest folks in the U.S. Bill Gates tops that list with $59 billion in net worth, give or take a few million, thanks to market fluctuation. He is the tip of the iceberg of (former) CEOs racking in the big bucks. United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies take an annual look at Executive Excess.

Some of their findings:

Back around 1980, big-time corporate CEOs in the United States took home just over 40 times the pay of average American workers. Today’s average American CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker’s pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general.

The highest earners in 2007? Private equity and hedge fund managers – the top 4 making more than $1.0 billion each, yes, that’s a B! Can someone explain to me how anybody can possibly deserve this much money? It’s disgusting!

I found this report while hunting down the income of oil company CEOs. UFE looked at those in 2006:

The top 15 U.S. Oil CEOs were paid an average of $32.7 million in 2005 while the average compensation for CEOs of large U.S. firms in all industries was $11.6 million.

This couldn’t possibly be the reason why our gas prices keep going up, now, could it? I am sure their record profits also play a factor. Of course, they blame it on our high demand for oil. I certainly agree that we are overconsuming but I am sure those CEOs don’t live in small, solar-powered houses…

Overall, all this points to the growing economic discrepancy in the United States and in the world. How long this is sustainable remains to be seen, however, that one of the top CEOs in 2006 was at Countrywide Financial should make us at least pause. All of this excess might come tumbling down like a house of cards…