How would you like to earn £62 million? Well, I’m sorry, forget it because you’re a doctor and not a Brazilian footballer transferring from one indebted European club to another.
At times of economic crisis, it is natural to examine the value placed on one’s role in society, or what we find it acceptable for money to be spent on. Our MPs are essentially getting a taste of their own medicine in this, as their expense claims for duck islands or porn videos are raked over - and they are asked to stand in the full glare of the media lights to justify these.
This followed hot on the heels of Alistair Darling lumping most doctors in with Fred the Shred in his last budget.
Those who contributed to the causes of the economic crisis would be those expected to pay for it. Well, Alistair - what did I do wrong? I trained for 12 years and work in excess of 60 hours a week to earn more than £150K. Is that your justification for taking away my right to a personal tax allowance and allowing you to steal 60% of anything I earn?
Sorry, I was actually under the impression that the government and the bankers were the cause of the crisis. I’m regulated by the GMC; they allowed the bankers to escape regulation. I didn’t decide to sell off a large portion of the UK gold reserves at the lowest gold price ever seen. I didn’t rape the pension system. I didn’t bankrupt the future of the country with PFI.
The problem now is that even those who work hard for their money - and I don’t include Kaka in that group - are going to get nailed by the public for what they earn, and the taxman for what they can get.
In the meantime, the people earning the really unfair sums of money - footballers, pop moguls and bankers - will either earn so much that they still have a lot after tax or avoid paying it altogether.
This will be happening while I’m on a sponsored bike ride trying to raise money for an operating table. Or as we wait on tenterhooks to see if we get the wartime wing of our hospital (that currently requires the careful placing 52 drip-catching buckets when it rains) replaced by a new build.
It’s time for a re-evaluation by society of what and who we spend our money on - and, I venture, a cap on the acceptable maximum for any one person’s earnings. However, at the same time we need to understand that at times of crisis, we all have to pay, middle and working class as well, and there should be a cap on the acceptable maximum that the state can ask from any one person.
Tags: Pay
Suspicious that the government set the higher rate of tax at just over what a minister earns. Coincidence, no?