because regardless of how the income is earned CEO's earning 1,431 times what line employees when wages for those line employees are essentially not growing is not considered a good thing by most Americans. Welch made much of his profits by throwing workers out of jobs or cutting their wages, the corporate dowsizing movement. Most Americans also dont approve of that, its a value call of course. Japanese and European executives commonly do as well as US firms operationally at a tiny fraction of what US executives are making. Indeed Pffefer, one of the best respected organizational writers of the last thirty years who consults with many firms, found in an extensive analysis recently that there is almost no correlation at all between corporate CEO pay/stock options and business profits over the long run.

No they are different concepts. Depriciation reflects the need to replace equipment and is not usually based on inflation adjusted numbers. The way it exist in the US tax system has little to do commonly with the true cost of purchasing a replacement item. Its a pretty artificial system.