Your views on the pay system

[Xenon]

What do you think about remuneration and how people are paid with regards to their places in society? Do you think, for example, athletes or actors are overpaid for lower-skilled more enjoyable work whilst lower-class workers such as taxi drivers, shoptenders or builders are underpaid for long grafting hours? The economy is already screwed (at least here in the UK), so this seems like an apt subject to discuss at this time.

I see this situation as an inescapable quandary; the economy cycle in employment is totally f-ed, yet I don't believe there is anything within our power as humans we can do to resolve it.

[stan423321]

The athletes/actors are paid for their rarity. If there would be a lot of actors, they'd have smaller salaries than, let's say, taxi drivers, if these would be rare.

[Holy Crap]

I have always found it unfair that sports people get paid millions for whacking balls around.
Stan, Athletes and Actors are far from rare, it's just that only a handful are well-known and successful.

[Cairnie]

All those things take an incredible amount of skill and talent. A footballer for example has to do a lot more that just kick a ball about, they have to have enough stamina to keep doing it while running about for 90 minutes or more each time. Actors have to pretend that they're someone else and that again takes skill, because it's too easy to screw up, laugh or whatever. As for singing, your voice has to be strong and be in control as well as keep with the key [I should know this one...]

But you all have a point, most of these "famous" people are overpaid. Say you're a singer, it's one thing if you're like Whitney Houston and give out that powerful voice of yours, but it's another when you're just a pair of bints and have your shit voices electronically enhanced while you belt out a bubblegum pop cover. There's too much of the pretentious kind in all creative fields.

And what of the poor supermarket workers and toilet cleaners eh? Yup, stuck down the bottom. These jobs have to be done after all for little money.

[stan423321]

Also.

Doctor has usually bigger salary than nurse, but nurse has usually shorter time of learning and she has smaller number of money to pay for her nurse school.

[Xenon]

My view is the less enjoyable the job, the more the earnings. Commercial jobs might require some skill in their field, but that's kind of irrelevant. I mean there are several things I'm 'professional' at, yet this doesn't mean I should be paid ridiculous amounts of money for just being talented in these activities.

The athletes/actors are paid for their rarity. If there would be a lot of actors, they'd have smaller salaries than, let's say, taxi drivers, if these would be rare.

So you also think, let's say, that wheelybin safety-checkers should be paid higher wages because their area of skill is rare?

[Matyuv]

My view is the less enjoyable the job, the more the earnings. Commercial jobs might require some skill in their field, but that's kind of irrelevant. I mean there are several things I'm 'professional' at, yet this doesn't mean I should be paid ridiculous amounts of money for just being talented in these activities.

Why not? If you are talented, why shouldn't you make profit out of it? A talent has to be developed too, and you have to prove that you're talented to others. Besides, if you feel that you earn too much, just donate to charity I suppose

[Tobbe]

My view is the less enjoyable the job, the more the earnings. Commercial jobs might require some skill in their field, but that's kind of irrelevant. I mean there are several things I'm 'professional' at, yet this doesn't mean I should be paid ridiculous amounts of money for just being talented in these activities.

Why not? If you are talented, why shouldn't you make profit out of it? A talent has to be developed too, and you have to prove that you're talented to others.

And more importantly: Other people have to appreciate your talent in order for you to earn any money from it.

[Joshua822]

I believe in a system where salary's are based on how hard the work is and how long is worked. If talented people sell their work, of course, they deserve some money for it, but for an overall salary they shouldn't have more than any other.

[Xenon]

Why not? If you are talented, why shouldn't you make profit out of it? A talent has to be developed too, and you have to prove that you're talented to others. Besides, if you feel that you earn too much, just donate to charity I suppose

I'm not suggesting it's wrong to make a profit out of personal talents; I'm just saying jobs in such fields shouldn't earn higher wages than longer-working grafting tasks. I mean say for example, if I could make a job out of my scoring in R3, of course I'd make the best out of it, and I'd want to make as much money as possible from it. This however doesn't mean that it would be justified, at least not in my eyes.

And more importantly: Other people have to appreciate your talent in order for you to earn any money from it.

Well, that seems to be the system we're experiencing at the moment. Look at footballing legends: most of their earnings are funded by tickets bought from stadiums. In my opinion the excess money should be donated to the Third World instead of footballers' pockets.

[Matyuv]

Why not? If you are talented, why shouldn't you make profit out of it? A talent has to be developed too, and you have to prove that you're talented to others. Besides, if you feel that you earn too much, just donate to charity I suppose

I'm not suggesting it's wrong to make a profit out of personal talents; I'm just saying jobs in such fields shouldn't earn higher wages than longer-working grafting tasks. I mean say for example, if I could make a job out of my scoring in R3, of course I'd make the best out of it, and I'd want to make as much money as possible from it. This however doesn't mean that it would be justified, at least not in my eyes.

I get your point.

Another idea that just came into my head is that money stimulates you to work harder and really concentrate on what you do best, and keep improving... so the wages difference usually IS justified in my opinion, in some cases it's over the top yeah, but take my country for example, after USSR collapsed our best scientists immigrated to Europe and USA basically because it was more profittable to work as a scientist abroad... but then again, Russian economy got really fucked up in the 90's and it still is (the global recession isn't helping either).

Just a thought.

[Tobbe]

Well, that seems to be the system we're experiencing at the moment. Look at footballing legends: most of their earnings are funded by tickets bought from stadiums. In my opinion the excess money should be donated to the Third World instead of footballers' pockets.

A noble thought, but I highly doubt that would be even remotely possible.

[Xenon]

I think it would be possible. It would be highly controversial I'll admit, but for all the good it would do, I'd say it would be a worthwhile reason to redevelop payment schemes.

[stan423321]

There is a notable problem with donations.

The trouble can be summed up in a few sentences: if you repeatedly send money to somebody, this person GETS USED to it, and this rule works in case of 3rd world etc. too. So instead of using sent resources to upgrade civilisation level, most (I don't say all! Most!) of these people become staying in one place, "because (UNICEF/Church/The Organisation of Ladybug Lovers in Chicago/whatever) would send us money anyway". This is caused by another way of thinking of these people; best example which comes to my mind is typical person from Middle America, which doesn't do a big work, because doesn't use money, because doesn't want to live with better furniture, radio, TV, home, clothes etc.. So, paradoxally, these donations can stop upgrading the civilisation level in some places.

Of course, your idea itself is good. There are some matches in Poland where 50% of profits go to some kind of charities, being the 3rd world, poor and sick children, or whatever. However, this is not much, because about 75% of ticket's value goes to... security agencies (you know what happens on Polish matches? No? Now you know.).