Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Two nations. Or three.

Inequality, for the Daily Mail, is an extra 20 quid a month given to nurses and teachers.

Today's Mirror is the only paper reproducing a list compiled by French magazine France Football. It shows that David Beckham tops the league of richest footballers, earning in excess of €32million per year, with several Premier League-based players earning over £10.

I took the liberty of getting my calculator out. I found out that Beckham OBE pockets over £2.5m a month. That's £3,750 every hour - way more than 90% of Brits would earn in an entire month. In terms of astronomical earnings, most Premier League players are not that far off.

Yesterday, the Daily Mail reiterated their views on inequality. They call it "a story of two nations". But they're not on about extreme wealth vs the majority of the population. No, like last week, they attack the 2% pay rise awarded to public sector workers like teachers and nurses. For the Mail, that's what "divides us further into two nations".

3 comments:

Paul Morden said...

But the reason why public service workers are not in people's good books at the moment is that they never took any risks in life. They never have problems with cash-flow problems or the risks associated with running your own business.

Stan Moss said...

Then, Paul Morden, if you put it in such an awful, spiteful way,
i sincerely your business goes bust.

Paul said...

With respect guys both of your views are unbalanced. I work in the private sector; my other half is in the public. I earn slightly more than her but I'm not dissing that as with responsibilities for big budgets etc a lot goes with her work as well. Paul you cannot compare the differences the way you do as if you get things right in the private sector the money flows. It isn't the same in the public; you can work your arse off and get a good report if you're lucky.

Conversely and many public sector workers will say this, more than a few of their colleagues skive off taking advantage of ludicrous sick pay allowances for so called stress etc. Such individuals would not last 5 minutes in the private sector. Of course most civil servants etc don't have cash flow problems but they do shoulder heavy responsibilities of their own. Nor is it true (at one time it was) that everyone else pays their pensions.