And, rightly so!
The green left article referred to below is badly informed because international salaries of most UN groups are quoted after tax for very very obvious reasons had the writer bothered to check the charters of the post war organizations. Still as an after tax amount the amount is just attractive enough for someone who would be worth several million after tax income in the modern financial economy to give that up to work for the IMF. The MD should be congratulated. She is sacrificing income not profiteering. Responsible use of one's income should be supported not castigated as the green left writer does! Such talk is not worthy of serious thinking individuals and is pandering to thoughtless biases!
Reality is that financial market people and senior government officials in almost all countries really do command and must a higher than average salary. Their work is not for the uneducated and irresponsible. Their work is for steady responsibility and dedication to a balanced life over the long term.
One needs to separate markets according to risk. The issue with property speculation is that banks were engaged in activities that they could not afford. They could not cover the risk adequately. Why? The reason is because governments like that in Greece did not pay attention to long term financial sustainability. A good banker cringes when banks lend to the property market because historically that market is very high risk during periods when government wish to create jobs.
In America, the slow pace of the economy is a reflection of the absense of a property boom and so be it. This will ultimately free up activity from real estate to productive services and manuafacturing. In the short term, however, there is a shortage of skills and people need to be educated. This is a very real problem in a country where tuition fees are very high and impede reorganisation away from speculation. In about fifteen years the property boom cycle could be repeated, but that would be because of irresponsible government / banking policy which has not learned the lesson that property growth needs to match capacity to repay loans over the long term an activity unsuited for banks that tend to focus on short term money management!
Also, the logic of the writer is almost stupid! If you save and work hard you deserve a good salary. The problem really lies with people who gamble on the property market. Behind the Greek crisis are loads of people who have won big in Greece through speculation in property. Many of these individuals are associated with American banks. As regards Australia, one can have respect that the property bubble was not as excessive as seen elsewhere!
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51214
