Some people feel that certain workers like nurses, doctors and teachers are undervalued and should be paid more, especially when other people like film actors or company bosses are paid huge sums of money that are out of proportion to the importance of the work that they do. -How far do you agree? -What criteria should be used to decide how much people are paid? v.2

Many people feel that, in recent years, there is no correlation between the amount of knowledge required to perform a certain job, and the salary recieved. For example, a surgeon working in the United States, studies 13 years in order to become fully qualified, and earns approximately 300, 000 dollars a year. In contrast, a famous actor, who did not study in the University, earns well over a million dollars for a single movie. These differences, might prevent people form persuing a carees in professions which our society is in desperate need, and so I agree with the statement given above. There are many professions in our society, which are mandatory for us to maintain a functional community, and require long periods of studying. To illustrate, we require physicians and nurses, in order to sustain a functional health system. Also, we need teachers to educated our children in schools. Because these professions are undervalued in comparisson to others, such as sportsman and actors, young people are unweeling to pursue these careers and, as a consequences, less manpower in these well needed professions. These changes has been shown in a recent study done in Israel, which indicated a 10% decrease in the amount of medical students in the last threee years, due to a 15% reduction in the average physicians salary. There are, in my poinion, two main criterias which can be used in order to assess appropriate salary. First, I believe salary should be directly related to the amount of years required to become fully educated in a given profession. According to this criteria, Universitiy professors and medical doctors for example, which studied well over ten years, whould earn more than a teacher who studied for 3 years. Second, salary should be given according to the goverments and community needs. To illustrate, computer engineers which are needed by the industry much more than actors whould be paid more, because it will encourage people to become engineers and, as a consequence, improve the economical situation. In conclusion, I agree with the above statement, and think people should be paid according to their education and society's need. Like this we will be able to direct people to the professions we, as a community, need.