The people who have everything also run everything.

or, as TheOldDear has just said:

celebrities such as
Christ Evans
Claudia Winkleman
Gary Lineker?
Footballers?
etc

how do their obscene salaries compare to that of MPs running the country?

In the vast majority of cases, in my experience, people who have everything not only take it for granted but feel that they either ‘deserve’ it or have some inalienable right to it.

That’s the real problem — the “I’m all right Jack” mentality.

My own pet hate is celeb culture, and the outrageously high salaries and fees paid to actors/comedians and public figures. Even people I used to respect have now plummeted in my estimation thanks to being happy to take easy money they don’t need by doing (sometimes excruciatingly bad) TV ads.

I don't think MPs are in fact overpaid.

Compare their salaries and even that of the Prime Minister with those of some Local Government Officers running little councils.
Top Union executives
Those in charge of the Health Service
Quango chiefs
etc
How can their jobs compare with those of PM?

I'm sure it was said by some Government bod that salaries should reflect the importance of the job done and the number of people willing to do it or something similar, so why are MPs (who wouldn't be an MP - great salary, expenses, pension etc) paid paid so much (they also give themselves a good payrise every year) when carers, nurses etc are paid so badly? What would the country do if there were no carers?

I’m certainly not envious! If I stop and think about my life and ask myself if I could be any happier, the answer is no. I am completely content with my lot.

But I am concerned about fairness and democracy.

So agree Grany . Also need common sense to run the country which seems sadly lacking in the “ brainy elite” that are attempting to run the country. Sick and tired of seeing people ( working,unemployed and disabled) alike trying to survive on a daily basis. Should be compulsory for the lot of them to deal with foodbanks and poverty so they see how real people live

Why is that every time the wealthy are criticised certain people on here assume that the rest of us are envious. I don't think that's the case at all. what we are criticising are the people who have power over us, like the politicians. There are some politicians who are from fairly ordinary backgrounds but a lot are from families, often with inherited wealth - Osborne, Cameron, Hunt, Johnson. None of these know how the rest of us live. BJ and JH are now talking the talk because they want to be the new PM. But they did nothing about the years of austerity that we've just experienced.

GG13 - a large chunk of that tax will be VAT on their purchases, not necessarily their income

So would you do away with private education?

The ideal would be for all children to have received the same type of education at their bog-standard comprehensive schools as those at fee-paying schools to give them all an equal chance.

But so many with common sense as well as brains would never go into politics anyway - just because they do have common sense.

This is about using your wealth to buy privilege and power and whether it is fair or democratic.

Of course, we could look at this from the converse:

Are (or were) comprehensive schools failing our children? Should they be achieving much more?

Certainly there were many 'bog-standard' comprehensives which failed so many, according to the public school educated Mr Blair and the grammar school educated Mr Campbell.

pogs missed the point again!

We are talking about privilege, not political parties. As it happens the Tory party have, at the moment a lot if incompetents who largely went to a common fee paying school and university, as a result of their parents wealth rather than their ability.

Also people come from nowhere , nothing , become very powerful voices
Yes, for good but also for evil!

Agree with you Elianne, there's a lot of it about.

One thing a private education does is instil confidence. Doesn't matter if you have the skills to back it up, believe that you can and others will too. One of the major reasons that we as a country are in such a mess. Good exam results can be the result of hothousing and cramming. Little indication of ability. Speaking as someone who passed a math paper harder than A level but never got around to learning the times tables. A Oxbridge degree proves little.

Those who have everything run everything is mostly true but not entirely true. They also say man plans God plans too. I think that’s true. If you look at the number of times humans nearly accidentally destroyed the planet ( nuclear experiments, investigating black holes, military accidents, virus / bacteria/ disease experiments , etc it does look like a higher force stepped in to save us! Similarly those ‘have it’s’ plan but strange things happen. People die, lose their marbles, empires fall apart, climate changes , it doesn’t all go according to their plan. Also people come from nowhere , nothing , become very powerful voices and shine ! Look at Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez a thorn in Trumps side like an exploding fountain of truth in a time of such hubris and lies. I think some people shine wherever they come from and everyone has a chance . I was a poor single parent struggling to make ends meet and yet my daughter has a PhD and already part of the global team grappling with keeping nuclear safe because it has massive potential to finish us off altogether making all other issues irrelevant. So some people will make it because they work hard , not because they were rich , some rich people have kids who die of drugs and miracles do happen.

Oh come on .Ezybee. Are you really convinced that those who go to Oxford and Cambridge all have first class brains. Prince Charles went, I believe he failed Maths GCE, even though someone would have been practically standing over him, guiding his pen.
Boris went to Eton and Jeremy to Charterhouse......you are not telling me that there are no first class brains in Kirby Comp in Liverpool.
Surely having being to these posh fee paying schools makes it a doddle getting in to Cambridge or Oxford.
Fee paying schools have the small class sizes to teach to pass exams.
I know that Boris and Jeremy are bright ( upper second for Boris, First for Jeremy) but I am not sure managing the county is all about having one type of brain, that can pass exams.
Prince Edward
Educated: Gordonstoun, head boy
Qualifications: nine O-levels, three A-levels (English C, history D, politics D), 2:2 degree in history, Cambridge.
How did he get into Cambridge I wonder.

Am I looking back through rose-coloured glasses in thinking that it used to be accepted that every child, whether parents were rich, poor, hard-working or feckless, however many siblings they had, had a basic right to a home, to adequate food, to medical care and a decent education?
With that, we could reasonably say that people make their own success or failure.

I agree re Phil Green Margs - however, the difference is that some people are risk-takers and others are happy to plough along in the same furrow all their lives.

Good post POGS .....if an alien landed and read GN it would imagine all wealthy and well educated people were
Conservative MP’s, Conservative voting business people and Conservative voters to a man/woman.?

Lazy stereotyping going on.

Perhaps you could send me a cheque ( or a parcel) Houndi
?
I would appreciate even one of those holidays.

It's big business that runs the world, not politicians.
And many top business people have drive and ambition, but not necessarily the 'privilege' of a top education.

I would never vote Conservative.I always believe for the many not the few.I have money but help charities and strongly believe that we should help people less fortunate.I am very grateful that i can afford four holidays abroad to Mauritius Canada America Australia New Zealand but i always put something back and give my time to help those less fortunate

And the likes of "Sir" Phillip Greene proves that you only need to get lucky, schmooze like-minded FatCats and abandon scruples, compassion and any sense of humanity in general and it's your lucky day!

(It also helps things along if you put all assets in your spouses name as they happen to live in Monaco and raid a failing department store chain's pension fund whilst your at it......before flogging it to a bankrupt for a mere quid).

The original post was about social mobility, and we can all quote incidences of people we know, or indeed ourselves, who have bucked the trend and done better than our parents. The fact is that although it was easier in the past, in modern day Britain, particularly over the last 5 years it has become a damn sight more difficult. If anyone can be bothered to look at the bigger picture and read the Social Mobility Report 2018/19 they will find this to be true. A quote from their report social mobility is not just about children from council estates becoming CEOs We want to reduce the social mobility "Power Gap" where those from better off backgrounds not only earn more money but control the lives that shape our society. To me this is the crux of the matter. Power continues to be invested in a few, who are the most privileged but not the most talented in our society. Just take a look at our politicians if you doubt this.