Idealism

I keep up with the Leveson Inquiry. I watched Rebekah Brooks's evidence today and it's set me off.

In my world, journalists should report the news. They shouldn't make it. They shouldn't try to direct the actions of politicians or the public mood. Gods know there isn't a shortage of news out there, perhaps if papers reported more about the lives of people living on 50p a day in Indonesia rather than footballers who barely get out of bed (or someone else's bed) for the millions they earn then the world would be a different place. Oh but no one would buy the papers then would they? It's down to the money, not the job well done.

But then I also think politicians should be more concerned with doing the right thing than the thing that will bring them power, money and/or career prospects. I think there's a point in the salary scale where you're earning more than you could ever need so at that point you absolutely should pay your taxes the way lower paid people do, without the aid of accountants and tax avoidance schemes. I think that at that level of salary, your primary focus should be doing your job well rather than keeping an eye on what your peers are earning and high tailing it off to another company if they promise to give you even more money than you could possibly need.

I think that brown field sites should be developed completely before another field is built on. By the same token, I think we should accept that the resources we have are all we're going to have and stop spending billions on space exploration which, whatever the good intentions of physicists, is only going to be used to harvest more resources from other planets.

I also think I should have a really large win on the lottery, but only so that I be largely altruistic and set a good example ;)