Papa John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter says overpaid corporate executives have driven the country down a precarious path veering far away from free trade, which is vital for the country to flourish.
In his new book, “Papa: The Story of Papa John’s Pizza,” Schnatter points out how America has become ill-chosen by investors due to excessive regulations imposed by big government.
“You’ve got to have free markets with limited government, with the proper amount of regulation where you don’t jam entrepreneurship,” Schnatter told Business Insider in a recent interview.
Schnatter has also been a long-time opponent of Obamacare and has even made controversial statements on the topic as early as 2012 when he suggested that the botched health care plan would ultimately raise the prices of his precious pies by 12 to 14 cents and cost his company millions of dollars annually.
This all goes hand in hand with President Donald Trump’s vision to “reform the entire regulatory code to ensure that we keep jobs and wealth in America,” and the president’s recent request to appeal the Affordable Health Care Act which members of the House and Senate are currently stalling on.
Trump, who also loves fast food, wants to put an end to “radical regulations that force jobs out of our communities and inner cities” and wants to “stop punishing Americans for working and doing business in the United States,” as Schnatter has also similarly advised.
And although the pizza businessman admittedly tries to steer clear of deep political issues, he reportedly donated $1000 toward Trump’s efforts in the third quarter of 2016 and thinks that “we ought to give the new administration at least a chance to either do better things or to botch it.”
Any way you slice it Schnatter is trying to make a difference. For a man that’s “worth $710 million” and “is paid just 20% of what the Papa John’s board has determined his leadership is worth,” as reported by Kate Taylor, Schnatter appears to be rather humble and focused on his goals. In fact, Schnatter claims that he has not “taken a raise probably in two, three, four years” and just wants to make the company better.
“The board gets upset because I won’t take a raise, but I’ve got plenty of money. […] I pay myself three, three and half million – which is plenty of money, c’mon.”
In comparison to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who earned a whopping $20.1 million in FY2015, Schnatter’s salary is rather modest and goes along with his belief of taking care of his employees first.
On a related note, President Trump signed an executive order Monday directed toward cutting regulations on small businesses in America.
Shepard Ambellas is an opinion journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub News & Politics (Intellihub.com). Shepard is also known for producing Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and appearing on Travel Channel’s America Declassified (2013). Shepard is a regular contributor to Infowars. Read more from Shep’s World. Get the Podcast. Follow Shep on Facebook and Twitter.
Watch: Trump Signs Executive Order Cutting Regulations that Oppressed American Industry
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