An unorthodox get rich quick scheme

A recent Wall Street Journal article reports the latest in a long line of controversial executive perks:

Posthumous Paydays.

Automatic options vesting, company-sponsored life insurance policies and continued payment of salary after death are just some of the perks top executives have written into their contracts, adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars in some of the most lucrative deals.

Severence pay packages, originally designed to see a person through to his next line of work, are now being used to compensate the departed as they transition to the afterlife.

One individual, Shaw Group CEO James. M. Bernhard Jr., is promised $17 million in compensation as part of his non-compete agreement, in which he would agree not to work for a competing company for two years after he leaves Shaw Group. An agreement that covers his death (when he would generally be considered unable to work for, or compete with, anyone).

And for those concerned about the transportation needs of the dearly departed, there's even the $158,400 afterlife car allowance afforded XTO Energy CEO Bob R. Simpson. That, in addition to the continued payment of his $4.4 million annual salary, should hep him with the high cost of gas until his $111 million bonus is paid and $20 million in stock options are vested by the company.

But in reality, times are hard for the upper class elite. The declining value of the dollar may be costing you and me a few hundred dollars a year in rising expenses and declining personal wealth. But for these guys, the fall of the dollar represents the loss of tens of millions of dollars in personal wealth.

So quit complaining.