Douglas, thank you for your response.



No, unfortunately I am not the one who decides what an appropriate level of remuneration is. Without wishing to sound arrogant I would say though that I believe that life for millions would be better if I was.



I have to say Douglas that I do not share your view that levels of pay should be ‘left to the market’. Over the millennia ‘the market’ has shown itself to be a vicious and unforgiving force which will allow the strong, cunning and devious to prevail.



Implicit in your post is the suggestion that without the prospect of financial inducement people will not invent any ‘good stuff’, or that they will not be interested in working hard at all. With the greatest of respect Douglas, your paradigm does not ‘hold water’. Of course there will be some talented mercenary individuals who will not work or produce anything of value unless they are richly rewarded. However there are countless instances of others who are not motivated in this way. For example, there have been many extremely valuable scientific discoveries which were made by people working in quite poor circumstances. If you have any contact with those in the scientific community you would be well aware that the prime motivation for most of them is not money. If time and space permitted I could also talk about the contribution to society made by those who volunteer their services in many ways that are also very valuable to society.



I do not mean to be offensive Douglas but I often find individuals whose only motivation for producing anything is financial reward, to be fairly hollow and superficial. Of course we all need to earn enough money to at least put food on the table, a roof over our heads and clothes on our back (something which an increasing number of Americans in your wonderful ‘free-market’ economy are finding it difficult to do). To suggest that without the hideously obscene levels of payment received by so many corporate CEO’s, that nothing of much value will be produced is disingenuous and naive.



I must admit that I find it interesting how so many who are beguiled, captivated and mesmerized by this free-market ideology, embrace it with such religious fervor. I guess that it is a simplistic notion which is used in business propaganda and in sections of the capitalist media to justify the behavior of industrial robber barons.

