As a fan of Marvel (NYSE:MVL), I enjoyed having Anders kick off his bullish case for stock options as corporate compensation by alluding to Spider-Man's famous motto. After scouring all of the fictional financial filings of The Daily Bugle, I see that Peter Parker never received stock options for his snappy shutterbug ways from stingy J. Jonah Jameson. Imagine that! Someone putting in great effort and taking great pride for something as simple as a paycheck!
"Look for 'incentive stock options' in your next contract," Anders writes. "They could make you rich."
That right there is why doling out options as compensation is so darn troublesome. They aren't necessary. If you believe in the company you work for, earmark a small part of your paycheck to buy shares in it. Yes, the same tax advantages apply until you sell. If you don't believe in the company, options won't make you work any harder or smarter -- unless you're one of the crooked bean-counters.
It's an epidemic at this point. Even companies that are supposedly clean as a whistle, like Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Inside Value recommendation Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), have been caught in the backdating backbiting. The fact that some of these practices have gone undetected for years doesn't sit well with me, nor should it with you.
Stock options just aren't a great motivator. For every company that Anders can single out as a success story, I can name dozens more that recklessly handed out options like penny candy as their shares plummeted toward zero.
If you think I'm wrong in painting executive stock options as a gateway drug, invite the IRS over for a chat. Last summer, it settled with countless corporate executives for scheming to defer taxes on their stock option income by passing those options to family controlled partnerships.
Even the honest are unfairly enriched, and that should have you seeing red over orange aprons. Home Depot (NYSE:HD) CEO Robert Nardelli has been awarded nearly $250 million in compensation over the past five years, even though his company's stock price as fallen in the same period. It's not the sector at work, either -- Rival Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) has seen its shares soar in that time.
Don't be too quick with that camera, Spidey. Stock options as compensation make for a really ugly picture.
Think you're done with the Duel? You're not! Go back and read the other three arguments, and then vote for a winner.
Marvel is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick, while Intuit and Home Depot are Inside Value selections. Whatever your investing style, the Fool has a newsletter for you.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz works for food, not stock options. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. T he Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
