The "Chavs" vs the "Chav nots"

After watching a mediocre international football match yesterday evening I read a report on the way into work in which a Premiership footballer was bemoaning the criticism he received for the size of his wage packet, believing that footballers should be classed as entertainers and compared to the earnings of Hollywood stars, rather than the average earnings of the man on the terraces.

Whether or not you like football, he has a point.

Rarely do you hear criticism of Messrs Clooney or Pitt, for the millions they earn, even when their performances on occasions (Oceans 12?) are not up to scratch.

So maybe it is more about the way in which they live their live, and the values. Maybe it has more to do with the jealously evoked by the "Chavs" vs the "Chav nots" division!

So how do you judge what a person is worth?

On my way home this evening I gave a pound to an apparently homeless person, begging at Holborn station, and then as I passed a silky voiced female soul singing busker at Green Park station, I turned back and gave her a pound also.

Was I wrong in the first instance because the money may be spent on drugs, or wrong in the second instance because the woman didn't actually need the money because she already has a good job by day?

Or, did I have the above two reasons the wrong way round?

The fact is I'll never know. One action was out of a sense of pity, and one out of admiration. Both, one, or neither acts may have been appropriate, but I'll never know.

Also, over half a million people use the Piccadilly line each day so, if they all walked passed my beggar and busker and every 2,500th person gave each women a pound, they would both earn more in the day than I do. How likely is that? For one, I believe it is quite likely, and it may not be the one who deserves the money most.

Given these moral dilemmas, it is fantastic that we have organisations such as Oxfam who identify where the need really is, and give practical help and support to those who need it most.

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