It is now a month since we entered the New Year and little has changed on possible good intentions
Executive Pay and Bonuses – are still unresolved with mind staggering figures being quoted. In a responsible Society it somehow seems obscene that someone can earn in a year what a person on average wage needs a lifetime to achieve.
The present Century has seen an escalation in Executive and Management pay to levels unprecedented in earlier years and out of all proportion to normal wages and work justification. It is argued as a matter of worth to our leaders of Industry, major Institutions and Local Councils, but what worth and at what cost.
The average wage in the UK is currently £25,800 per year, is this management worth four, six or even ten times those who work hard in the business and help to create that wealth. Even these factors do not approach the 40 to 200 times the average wage that these people assess themselves at.
Many of the worst offenders in the Financial Industry run no more than a large casino gambling our money and livelihood away, others ruin perfectly good businesses by denying working capital or asset stripping. Yet the basic financiers, the shareholders who take the risk, see their money disappear in falling share prices as a result of these astute management efforts.
Benefit Control – on the other end of the scale, we see a very similar position amongst a large number of those on benefit. Both Houses are arguing over a benefit cap, needed to control the runaway costs, yet this is intended to encourage a return to work, but is set at a level above the average wage!
A person on the average wage will pay tax and NI amounting to some £5,600 and will have work costs, pension contributions, etc., which will bring take home pay below £19,000. Yet there are no proposals in the £26,000 benefit cap that include tax or NI deductions, making recipients some £7,000 per year better off not working.
At the other end of the scale, pensioners are expected to live on £5,300 or £8,400 if a couple. The minimum the State says a person needs to live on is set at £6,600 and even if we apply these more generous levels, allowing for children we arrive at benefit cap levels below £14,000, giving adequate income and leaving incentive to work.
High Speed Trains – another area which has been kicked into touch, but the more one looks into it the more it appears as a colossal waste of money, creating disruption and upset for many.
In addition to the normal arguments against, it would seem that it could be out dated before it even starts running, The Chinese are working on a Vactrain, which they say can be put into operation in ten years. It would run in a vacuum tube at speeds of 620 mph, which could increase up to 5,000 mph and with no air resistance, consumes little energy.
Such a virtual perpetual motion machine offers obvious advantage although costs are expected to be higher than HS2.
There is however a much lower cost opportunity in vacuum transport using smaller car size capsules running in five foot diameter tubes with speeds of 340 mph, but capable of much higher speeds. Cars would take six passengers or 600kgm of freight in an automated dual tubeway claimed to have the capacity of a 32 lane highway and cost one tenth of HS2.
The concept is not new, as a child, I can remember my mother paying the assistant in a store, who put the money and sale ticket in a twist lock capsule and inserted it into a vacuum tube. I listened fascinated as it went up to and along the ceiling to the office and within a minute or so returned dropping into a tray with change and receipt.
Thousands of miles of gas pipelines exist up to four feet in diameter, buried just underground in excavated trenches and even under sea, at costs from £ 2 to 3.5 million per mile, including terminals and pumping stations. Dual tubeways should therefore cost £7 to 8 million per mile, making London to Birmingham (25 minutes) less than £1bn, in fact a 1200 mile tubeway linking all major cities in UK mainland would only cost one third of HS2 plus rolling stock.
The prospect of travelling in a vacuum may be daunting, but in fact a major part of modern travel is carried out this way in aircraft. Capsules should cost less than cars with no engines, once accelerated to speed they would then coast without power. Linear motor and Maglev trains exist or rail or coil gun techniques could be used, to get 1,000 kgms up to 340mph, which requires 3.1Kwh of energy in half a minute timescale.
The UK has the opportunity to be at the forefront of such green and advanced technology.
Public Sector Pensions – have gone quiet but are rumbling on with the government forcing its unfair round one proposals on to teachers and nurses, this will be an annual event with growing unrest and dissatisfaction.
Annuities Public Sector NHS Teachers Police Local Government Hutton State Pensions Transport Comment
No comments:
Post a Comment