Old Blog 2009-04-29

Up in London this week. Managing to ignore other commuters by reading one of the many free papers available at Paddington (and Oxford) and thrust into your hands outside the underground stations.

 

One columnist, "City Girl", was complaining about the new higher rate tax since the majority of people who work in the city are, in her opinion, members of or aspire to be members of the £150k a year club. Predictably the same paper the next day was full of comments from people who stood no chance of earning that much a year but still work in the city: the taxi drivers, cleaners, secretaries etc.

 

Related to this, on the bus to the station this morning I was thinking about garages doing work on my car and how much they charge for labour. The company I work for charge me out at £1300 per day. That works out at £162 per hour. If a garage charges labour at £40 per hour does that make me four times better than him? I wouldn’t have the first clue about servicing a car. Do I contribute four times as much to society as a whole? Who can say?

 

It was this last point that really got me thinking. Would society be better if everyone was paid the same?

 

Possibly, but possibly not. As long as we are paid more than I earn now, and I can still afford everything I want I would be happy.