Thoughts on a maximum wage? Would there be any downside?

Yet we don't actually see that irl.
There have been much higher tax rates, limits on wages, all sorts of stuff but the wealthy generally sit tight. They don't have to uproot their lives like some poor, they jut pay someone to move around their wealth so that it's protected.

Depends on the maximum wage and the tax rate. I don’t support a maximum wage for anyone not a public employee of for a company that is bailed out by the government (Goldman and Lehman brothers execs shouldn’t have made $40mil after a bailout).

I’m just saying that the exodus wouldn’t be as grand as some think

It's wasted political capital. The problem isn't the CEO making 20 million, it's the major shareholders making hundreds of millions or even billions each while refusing to pay a living wage.

They should also ban corporate stock buybacks, which were illegal before the 80's.

What the point. You limit wages then what, companies save money. How do we know they won't just pass it onto stockholders. This creates no tax revenue to fund social programs, it's just an fu to the rich and has no other purpose.

Make it so the highest paid employee can only make a certain multiple of the company's median wage. Cap it at 50x median wage to force them to pay rank and file employees more.

The CEO of Toyota makes like 80% less than the Big 3exec's.

The issue with a company paying CEOs in other ways is that it's considered income, therefore still here under the penalty. A quick example is some employers give their employees points to spend in an online catalog. Whatever is bought with the points is considered a bonus and is taxed accordingly. I think a good example of this situation working would be Japan, as they have a relatively low unemployment rate because the companies can only really expand and pay their employees.

A thoughtful analysis. Those are very real problems for sure. I think it’s important to say that while I support a max wage, I also support ANY additional measures to curb the obscene hoarding of wealth.

It’s a very difficult battle fighting corporate interests who already hold such a powerful position but honestly I think you presented the solution: real people realising they are not (and will never be) the beneficiaries of this broken system. The more the public is prepared to call the system out, the more actual progress can be made on making it fair and democratic.

People will always try to use loopholes to keep their obscene wealth. It’s up to us to always call it out and always close the loopholes. Maybe one day we’ll have actual enforced regulation of this stuff if enough people decide it’s important.

Supply and demand is already fucked up by wages being artificially supressed by turning full-time positions into part-time and importing(even legally) low wage workers.
Nevermind that adjusted for inflation, people are being paid less for the same work, even as they are being more productive by the hour, working longer hours, and taking less time off work.
It's not greedy entitled workers demanding too much, it's greedy owners who have created and maintain a system where they can pay people less than the value of their work and pocket the rest. The increasing wealth disparity and concentration of the vast majority of wealth in an exponentially smaller group is not because the rich are just working that much harder than all the plebs slaving away multiple jobs for their bosses to get new boats while they struggle to survive.