Vincent Browne wrote, today:

“….Just think of a society where every one was paid the same wage. Is it likely that many of us would do anything different from what we do at present? Isn’t it likely we would do more socially useful work than we do now? Isn’t it likely that if we were all paid the same, very few of us would care about fine houses and large mortgages, about fine restaurants and fine wines, about umpteen foreign holidays …That our expectations and delights would be of a more modest nature but no less delightful….”

We’ll ignore the absurd economics of his suggestion. They are not worthy of a response. One thinks of Orwell’s line, that ‘One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that; no ordinary man could be such a fool’. Instead we’ll concentrate on the fact that, funny enough, Vincent neglects to mention his reputed €300,000+ annual salary for his dire TV3 programme, or his sinecures from The Irish Times, The Sunday Business Post or his own loss making venture, Village, which we can only presume brings him up to at least the €380,000+ range, which in Browne’s parlance would be “over 10 times the average industrial wage”.

Nor does he mention his own “fine house”, a fine home in Dublin 4, no less. Or his Clongowes education.

Excuse me, while I go vomit…