i agree with NF's sentiments, i too pay more and more council tax (over £2k a year now) for less and less in return, the difference funding council pensions for not badly paid and not overworked public employees (ever tried contacting someone of any importance in the local authority on a Friday afternoon? They are usually, and mysteriously "out of the office")
Unfortunately the first rule of life is that what people consider the "right" thing to be done is usually whatever benefits them directly. There is no answer to this debate. Over the last decade we have had a government sympathetic to the demands of the public sector, their pay has gone up, pensions protected, billions of extra £'s pumped in and for precious little extra return in terms of services. Go back 20 years, to the Thatcher era it was quite the opposite, the then higher earning private sector people were the winners back then, mainly through tax and NI reductions. The old adage "you can't please everyone" is so true. As a slight aside, it also amuses me that traditionally pilots have compared themselves renumeration wise to "comparable" professions such as medicine and law. Yes we all must attain professional qualifications blah blah blah but we are not comparing like with like. Lawyers especially are basically verbal mercenaries, and are paid for their "knowledge" of the legal system. Nobody likes the way they earn their money, until the time comes when they need a good one arguing their corner! GP's on £100+k a year? Are they worth this? i don't know. Like i say nothing is comparable. They secured the deal by negotiating with inept civil servants, but this was no doubt easier than our scenario in aviation because medicine is not a competative industry, and they were dealing with the bottomless pit of taxpayers cash, not hard, shrewd airline managements who in turn are only doing what they are being paid to do, to the best of their ability. Hopefully you can see the point i'm trying to make.