"Well Jim there seems to be a fair number of people sniping at what top directors earn etc etc."
People are sniping at what top directors earn BECAUSE IT IS THEIR INCOMPETENCE THAT GOT US IN THE MESS WE ARE IN AT PRESENT.
It is the politicicians greed and corruption and the finacial pundits bad advice and big buisnesses' "couldn't give a fuck what happens to the country" attitude that caused this crash - I don't see you putting an argument that this isn't the case.
I couldn't agree more about TU salaries being disgraceful - it is one of the reasons many of them have been bought into being part of the establishment, but it is totally irrelevant to his discussion, unless you can prove that the trades unions have somehow had a part in the present financial balls-up.
Whatever I might think of the salaries of the politicians, law administrators... whoever, it is the combined forces of big business's greed and mismanagement and politicians incompetence and corruption that has caused the closure of our local a A&E department, threatened my pensions, thrown thousands on the dole..... how far do you want to go?
Yes, in the long run salaries are important; the surgeon who operated on me recently takes home fabulous amounts of money - but if I had to choose between his pay packet and that of a banker who has just been awarded equivilant to five years wages of an ordinary worker as a bonus for making a balls-up - I know where my vote would go.
Jim Carroll