I'm fairly surpised that this thread has grown as much as it has. I thought the first couple of posts would be the end of it. Since starting it and reading through the replies, however, I have changed my viewpoint thatnks to your answers.
1. Firstly, I wasn't questionning the difference in qualification and skill level of CPL holders to any degree. I was merely interested in the rationale behind the law that even though PPL holders can carry as many passengers as they like, they cannot do it for any financial benefit.
2. My question pertained to the occasional 'mate' who might ask a favour. I wasn't suggesting that posting an advert in the local paper for an air-taxi service would be acceptable
Obviously as a low-hours student I have not had the oppurtunity to take any passengers. Nor have I ever paid a PPL holder for a pleasure flight. I've re-read my original posts and they don't give an actual reflection of the answers I was trying to obtain. I was careless with my wording - for example the section on 'nobody cares what goes on.' Clearly people do care.
In starting this thread I was more interested in finding out exactly
why PPL cannot carry any passengers (which to a large degree has been answered) and what constitutes as payment. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned their mate friend them breakfast to say thank you. This is more the 'reward' I am concerned about. Like I said previously I'm not talking about starting up your own airline (don't take that past novelty-value).
It was overly-predispositious of me to suggest that in the future I would 'pay more than half' if a friend took me up and would accept more than half if someone insisted on it etc etc. After reading this thread I will make sure that doesn't happen. I suppose that's the point of being a student isn't it really, you've got to learn these things.
It does still seem a little odd to me that you can carry as many passengers as you can get your hands on, and are judged safe to do so, yet cannot accept money for it. I know that's just the way it is though, and I know that with a CPL you will be ten times more qualified to do this.
Edit: In reference to the comment regarding 'having 100 hours on my belt before taking passengers,' it isn't a set figure. When you pass your driving test you're anything but proficient on the roads. You do more learning in the first day without an instructer than you did in the previous 2 months. Obviously the PPL standards are much higher than the equivalent driving standards so this isn't as much of a case - but even if I feel confident I'd want to take a few hours on top of my qualification to make sure I was comfortable - e.g. a few more difficult landings, or increment weather etc etc.