Is anyone here getting any help from NAS ?

The Imp of the Perverse said:

Thank you for that long reply zone tripper. I learned a lot about you but I'm not sure you realise the bind you put yourself in. You argue that Britain and Denmark are not comparable in size and then you tell us a lot about yourself and extrapolate from there to encapsulate everyone else. You and everyone else are not the same size. What is right for you, in all of that detail, is not right for everyone else. We all have to fit on a planet whose resources are very unequally divided and may be nearing a point where the consequences of that have very significant effects.

Your comment about the SWP was pretty cheap. The fact that you no longer have those leanings is no significant marker of maturity. I could name any number of people, presumably more qualified than both of us, who are well-respected economists and political thinkers, and who do see real problems in such an unequal society. Not everyone is as rational about their mediocre wage as you seem to be. The £140,000 compensation is not so material for me. It's more a sign of decadence and no reason at all for not engaging with the NAS. Perhaps I should ask to be paid in cash because I do not like how much bankers get paid or live in a cave because of the salaries of solicitors. I guess having an opinion about high pay is problematic is it?

 

I respect your viewpoint, although I do not agree with it.

I should point out that I am left-wing, but I am NOT far-left.  I may believe in some socialist ideas, but I am not in favour of Communism.  We do not make an equal society by punishing people who are on better salaries than others.  What is the incentive of studying hard, working hard, and gaining promotions within the workplace, if you are expected to remain on a similar salary as somebody less qualified and less experienced than you?  

To make a society more equal, you make opportunities for poorer people to better themselves in terms of access to university education, small business start-up grants, subsidised housing, tax relief, etc, so that they can one day get a good degree, and a good job.  Renationalising the railway industry and public utilities, the reintroduction of student grants, and the building of more social housing would perhaps go some way of making lives a little easier for the poorer members of society, as well as graduates who come from poor backgrounds.  

(Sadly, the introduction of student loans is causing hardship amongst many students, as they leave university in debt BEFORE they start any career!  And life is made harder for graduates due to the rising costs of (private) train and bus travel, high rates of car insurance for young motorists, high cost of living, the privatisation of our utility companies, etc.)

A Chief Executive earning £130,000 does NOT take home £130,000, when one deducts PAYE, NI, pension contributions, travel costs, household bills, mortgage, etc! 

Many millionaires are self-made, many come from working class backgrounds and lived on council estates, but they worked their fingers to the bone to earn their living and I do not begrudge them their fortunes.  Working class men such as Lord Alan Michael Sugar (who was born into a working class family, living on a council estate) should be seen as an inspiration to others.  

Not everyone who is born into poverty wants to remain so.  Many work their fingers to the bone to earn their wealth, others study hard, work hard and get promotions within their workplace, and others emigrate to the UK from poorer countries because they can earn a higher wage in the UK than in their own country.  

(The singer Ketevan Melua, better known as Katie Melua, was born in Georgia when it was still a part of the Soviet Union.  In the 1980s, her father, a qualified heart surgeon, was earning less money than a taxi driver could earn in Georgia!  How was it fair that a qualified professional surgeon, performing life-saving operations, was earning less money than a taxi driver?  After the fall of Communism in the early 1990s, the Meluas emigrated to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and then eventually to Surrey, England, where Ketevan's father now works as a GP.  At the first opportunity he got, her father did not hestitate to make a better life for his family, when the fall of Communism and the Soviet Union gave him the opportunity to seek a medical job with a better paid salary in the UK.  Ketevan herself attended the Brit School of Musical Arts, eventually being talent-spotted by Mike Batt.  Adopting the stage name of Katie Melua, she is now a multi-millionaire, successful singer.)

The Imp of the Perverse said:

Thank you for that long reply zone tripper. I learned a lot about you but I'm not sure you realise the bind you put yourself in. You argue that Britain and Denmark are not comparable in size and then you tell us a lot about yourself and extrapolate from there to encapsulate everyone else. You and everyone else are not the same size. What is right for you, in all of that detail, is not right for everyone else. We all have to fit on a planet whose resources are very unequally divided and may be nearing a point where the consequences of that have very significant effects.

Your comment about the SWP was pretty cheap. The fact that you no longer have those leanings is no significant marker of maturity. I could name any number of people, presumably more qualified than both of us, who are well-respected economists and political thinkers, and who do see real problems in such an unequal society. Not everyone is as rational about their mediocre wage as you seem to be. The £140,000 compensation is not so material for me. It's more a sign of decadence and no reason at all for not engaging with the NAS. Perhaps I should ask to be paid in cash because I do not like how much bankers get paid or live in a cave because of the salaries of solicitors. I guess having an opinion about high pay is problematic is it?

 

I respect your viewpoint, although I do not agree with it.

I should point out that I am left-wing, but I am NOT far-left.  I may believe in some socialist ideas, but I am not in favour of Communism.  We do not make an equal society by punishing people who are on better salaries than others.  What is the incentive of studying hard, working hard, and gaining promotions within the workplace, if you are expected to remain on a similar salary as somebody less qualified and less experienced than you?  

To make a society more equal, you make opportunities for poorer people to better themselves in terms of access to university education, small business start-up grants, subsidised housing, tax relief, etc, so that they can one day get a good degree, and a good job.  Renationalising the railway industry and public utilities, the reintroduction of student grants, and the building of more social housing would perhaps go some way of making lives a little easier for the poorer members of society, as well as graduates who come from poor backgrounds.  

(Sadly, the introduction of student loans is causing hardship amongst many students, as they leave university in debt BEFORE they start any career!  And life is made harder for graduates due to the rising costs of (private) train and bus travel, high rates of car insurance for young motorists, high cost of living, the privatisation of our utility companies, etc.)

A Chief Executive earning £130,000 does NOT take home £130,000, when one deducts PAYE, NI, pension contributions, travel costs, household bills, mortgage, etc! 

Many millionaires are self-made, many come from working class backgrounds and lived on council estates, but they worked their fingers to the bone to earn their living and I do not begrudge them their fortunes.  Working class men such as Lord Alan Michael Sugar (who was born into a working class family, living on a council estate) should be seen as an inspiration to others.  

Not everyone who is born into poverty wants to remain so.  Many work their fingers to the bone to earn their wealth, others study hard, work hard and get promotions within their workplace, and others emigrate to the UK from poorer countries because they can earn a higher wage in the UK than in their own country.  

(The singer Ketevan Melua, better known as Katie Melua, was born in Georgia when it was still a part of the Soviet Union.  In the 1980s, her father, a qualified heart surgeon, was earning less money than a taxi driver could earn in Georgia!  How was it fair that a qualified professional surgeon, performing life-saving operations, was earning less money than a taxi driver?  After the fall of Communism in the early 1990s, the Meluas emigrated to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and then eventually to Surrey, England, where Ketevan's father now works as a GP.  At the first opportunity he got, her father did not hestitate to make a better life for his family, when the fall of Communism and the Soviet Union gave him the opportunity to seek a medical job with a better paid salary in the UK.  Ketevan herself attended the Brit School of Musical Arts, eventually being talent-spotted by Mike Batt.  Adopting the stage name of Katie Melua, she is now a multi-millionaire, successful singer.)