Valuing the work that matters most

Thanks to Valuing the work that matters most « MAKE WEALTH HISTORY for the link to this report: A Bit Rich from the new economics foundation.

A very interesting report that looks at the total impact of employment that results in a comparison of cost and benefit. Some headline figures:

• For every £1 of pay a top banker costs the country £7 social value
• For every £1 of pay a Nursery Worker adds £7 of social value to the country 
• For every £1 of pay a Tax Accountant costs the country £47 social value
• For every £1 of pay a Waste Recycling Worker adds £12 of social value to the country 

I don't imagine the methodology will be acceptable to all (understatement!!) but a very interesting look at things. Maybe the tax system should work so that in Net Pay all workers make a +ve contribution to social value beyond their actual cost. The job market might look rather different then - it looks that some currently highly paid jobs might require you to pay us to let you do them :-)

Seems to me that we need to hear more about alternatives to the greed culture that has been celebrated in recent years.