The really rich will always be so because they provide something that people obviously desire otherwise they wouldn't part with their money.
The bureaucrats in the Public Service are a totally different kettle of fish. They do not provide, they just take & because there are so many of them prices will always be high so there's enough tax dollars to pay the maggots.
Let's have a referendum on public service pay ceilings & prices will come down naturally.

Individual - The really rich will always be so because they provide something that people obviously desire otherwise they wouldn't part with their money.

Whilst there is some truth in that, it doesn't take account of the difference between the self-made zillionaire Richard Branson type who provide value for money, and the total parasite public company CEO who produce nothing period.

misanthrope,

Chiding others for insulting each other while calling people fools would make you an oxymoron.

Lyn's article includes gems such as "The so called filthy rich take the lions’ share collectively leaving the majority to scrounge amongst the leavings or to depend on the whim of the largesse of the privileged." and "The few still control the resources that belong to the many".

The communists were trying to paint this as a zero sum game, that the more the rich had, the less the poor had. This is not a concept that carries any weight even in the most socialist of western nations. Similarly most entrepreneurs are not in the resource industry, and the resources they use are ideas, money and people, to which they are entirely entitled.

I have never been rich. I have never been CEO of a large company either.

I have however been CEO of a couple of small companies, & a division of a moderate one, all of which were going broke when I took over.

It was my expertise & savvy that turned each of these entities around, making them viable. I was worth more money, but companies going bankrupt can't pay all that much.

One of these companies offered me a bonus of 1/2% of turnover, above that existing, as an inducement. In 18 months I had turned the company around, & my bonus was about twice my salary. Turnover is a very poor measurement of success, or profitability, but this was now highly profitable.

The board wanted to cut my bonus, & the way they went about it, caused me to quit. Less than 2 years of the new management had the company in receivership. Perhaps they should have doubled my bonus, not cut it.

Big business is no different. Bad management can send it bankrupt, & good management can make big profits. The manager who can make big profits is surely worth some of that profits in return.

There was the recent example of a bad manager who took the company into Aluminum smelting, just before it became a dead loss. He cost his company billions, & lost his job.

Surely the manager who took his company out of aluminum smelting, selling out at just the right time, saving his company billions is worth a couple of million for being so smart, & making his employers so much richer.

I have always found the politics of envy rather disgusting, particularly as practiced by those who do not have a clue.

Hasbeen - have always found the politics of envy rather disgusting

I don't think anyone is suggesting there shouldn't be reward for effort, however surely there must be limits. A million buck salary might well be commensurate with a business earning zillions but nobody on planet earth is worth remotely near ten million, regardless of company profit. There is no way they could spend that in five lifetimes, consequently a desire to be paid that much can only be prompted by avarice. The tens of millions commonly paid to banksters & insurance company executives is nothing less than obscene. Note particularly that my criticisms apply to public company executives, most of whom do stuff-all in proportion to what they get paid. Those who run a private company in which they own the majority of shares (and hence the risk) have every right to pay themselves whatever they like, after all its their money.

Yes praxidice it does seam that it is the managers in some businesses where it would be hard not to make big profits do get over paid.

Banks in Oz are protected to some extent, from themselves, by our more suitable regulations, so easier to run.

Don't forget however, it was bad management at one bank that precipitated the great financial crisis, so management is quite critical in many other banking markets.