The fattest cat
What did you earn last year? Enough? Not nearly enough? Pay is of course, all relative, especially when compared with the majority of the global population who are still struggling to exist on a pittance. We are not starving in Britain, we generally know where our next meal is coming from and the State provides previously unimagined riches such as free education and healthcare that should be the envy of the world. Robert Hester Chief Executive of RBS “earned” over seven million pounds last year. And the pay of top business executives is growing. Just mull over that figure; seven million pounds, that would pay for an awful lot of hip replacements and teachers salaries. The reasons for such obscene rates of remuneration are not clear. The companies say they must match the market and pay the going rate or their leaders will jump ship to other big-paying firms. The recipients of these monster salaries hold their hands in the air and spout the nonsense that they just simply take what is on offer and they cannot be held accountable. Can anyone be “worth” these payments? I can see what a doctor, teacher or even a footballer actually does to earn their coin; they have measurable benchmarks. It is not so easy to explain what the city fat cats actually do to deserve such reward. When questioned they dress up their responses in the latest piece of “management-speak” and infer that it is all far too complicated for us mere mortals to understand. Tom Wolfe described them as the Masters of the Universe; far above normal everyday concerns and worries. The fattest cats are getting fatter while the rest of us fight over the scraps. The gap between the richest in Britain and the remainder of us continues to grow
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