[fintstone]

Originally Posted by arcsine

Fine. You are welcome to your opinion. But I have to ask a question that may be best suited to another thread.

Certainly, most management, financial or legal professions having little direct benefit to production of a good or service yet all are well compensated in general. So what is our criteria for making an evaluation in the relative worth of a persons vocation? Is it that we value what we do ourselves in specificity or field? That they know how to manipulate the fiscal markets? They have advanced degrees? (Thus cannot be true as witnessed by this thread.).

I am naive in thinking that worth should somehow we connected to the tangible product being supplied.

The question is "What IS a valued occupation?"

Yes, you are naive. It is not about how hard you work or what tangible product you provide, but rather, competition for labor. If they can find someone to do your job for $40K, then they will not pay you $60K (unless you are union labor..then they will pay you $100K)...even if you are making $500K for them..because they can have another guy make the same $500K for them for $20K less. The same is true for you. If you could make $20K more elsewhere, then you would likely go there. In the open market, scarcity is what typicallly drives up salaries. Professions with high entry requirements like advanced degrees (doctors, lawyers, engineers) will almost always pay significantly better than positions with lesser of generalist degrees...especialy if the education systems makes entry into the field difficult (like med school entry, bar exam, or other certification).