Nurses are some of the hardest working people I know and their skills mean that patients live rather than die. The fact that they are paid less than someone whose job doesn't involve saving lives (such as government ministers) is outrageous. Sure, they could go into more lucrative professions and many of them are. But what happens? A shortage of personnel in an essential area.

As for mediocrity, the free market rewarded mediocrities like Rodney Adler and Ray Williams. Now they are serving time at Her Majesty's pleasure. Perhaps they are an example of "market correction" - except that the market didn't correct them. The criminal justice system had to step in.

As I said earlier, it is disgusting that people working in essential services are paid a pittance compared with parasites who bludge off low-paid workers.

DavidJS,

I certainly agree that people like nurses and doctors are undervalued in the current climate. I would certainly like to see their services revalued up, and significantly too.

However this isn't demonstrative of a systemic failure.

Neither is Adler/williams. You're right that the judiciary needed to step in, but then, no one is suggesting a completely unregulated or unpoliced system. It's entirely right that they spend time behind bars.

i would guess mr stilwell makes a good living by telling us what we can see by reading the newspaper. when it comes to overpaid, we can start there.

this is laughable. incomes aren't a fruitful matter of public discussion. joe subject has no input on anyone's income but (maybe) his own. he has no input on anything actually. this political sheep station has the usual amount of chatterati, because primates talk even when they are sheep. but sheep primates can't actually do anything, their talk is always just gossip.

before you pontificate on what needs to be done, you should have some suggestions on how to do it. otherwise, you're just a chatterer, even if you've managed to get paid for your empty words.

Hmmmm? the heat is going out of these pages.

Any way Yes - Australians should be concerned about the growing gulf between the haves, the have yachts and the have bugger alls.

Will we do anything about it? Unlikely.

We are intrinsically acquisitive - stuff is what we yearn for - it sets us apart from everybody else.

We are smug and it will be our undoing - and then we will complain endlessly about how the masses are ungrateful when they rise up - and so it goes.

BN
If my so;ution were adopted on a world basis where would those who want an obscene wage migrate to?

The vast majority of Australians are decidedly 'middle class', based on home ownership and compulsory superannuation.

The 2006 Census reveals that of the 7.5 million private dwellings counted, 65% were fully owned or being purchased, only slightly lower than in 2001 (66%).

This change was driven by a large decrease in the proportion of occupied private dwellings that were fully owned.

As Professor Stilwell says "The households in the top fifth of the wealth distribution increased their wealth by an average of around $250,000 in the ten years to 2004 (two-thirds of which resulted from gains in the real estate market),

Wealth distribution is distorted by the uneven escalation of value depending on location and besides, house value does not necessarily reflect well-being.

The equivalent house worth say $250,000 in a large provincial town would bring over $1m. in parts of Sydney, Perth or Melbourne. However, arguably, the lifestyle in the town would be happier and healthier than that in the large city.

Undoubtedly there are pockets of poverty mainly among single parent households and unemployed.
Undoubtedly there are pockets of obscene personal wealth.

But I don't see how reducing the wealth of the top 200 assists the poor.

If Professor Stilwell is correct, that there is "a widespread preference for increased social spending, even a willingness to pay the necessary taxes to fund it", I'm certain Kevin Rudd would embrace such a policy (the increased taxation part I mean) to cement an election victory.

Somehow I don't think he will.