Don't forget that the cost of living is also very important when discussing what is reasonable to live on. In the UK the minimum wage is far higher than here, but it will get you a lot less. I probably earn a lot less than many back home, but I am getting fleeced less too. I think sometimes people underestimate what it means to be poor back home. Just look at VAT there which is 20% and hits the poor simply for eating or not walking around bollock naked. At least here it is 10%. If you don't earn much at least that's another 10% in your pocket when you cover the basics. At least your bills are nationalised and will only cost you a few bob each month. Why should a poor person in a tough area be paying the same council tax as a millionaire foreign property investor in a flash part of London? Why is there even very much council tax for anyone considering you pay income tax, VAT etc? My council tax is less than a tenner a year. Sometimes you can have a system that is about service and that alone. You can tolerate earning less money if it isn't as expensive to live.

Now I am not against tax just as long as it is a fair system that goes towards schools and helping the vulnerable, but when it is to bail out the banks in perpetuity. Well, that's a banana republic. You can pay people low wages, but in turn services should be cheap. If you want to charge a fortune then wages have to go up. I think it is a fairly simple equation. For 40 years wages simply haven't risen in real terms in Britain or America, in fact they have declined.