1 You are spot on in you assessment Bert, it seems that we haven't learned a thing from the lessons of history. I spent nearly 20 years at the top of my craft, there were many in my profession who could rise there who chose to stay at a lesser level, the reason was responsibility and hard work. But by limiting their ability they automatically limited their responsibility, the same is true of all society. Do less with less effort??? Even though they instituted the worker progression policy my employer didn't demand that they achieve the top rating so that all of us were sharing the responsibility load, instead they leaned hard on those of us with the knowledge and skills to the point of burn out, while letting the rest languish at two or three grades lower, it cost them less per hour in wages. As a consequence they lost nearly all their top tier skill group, then they instituted a two tier pay structure, where new replacements could only get to two pay grades below our grandfathered rate, beginning at half the wage scale. Company wide the resulting mediocrity caused much damage to equipment and loss of productivity, some of it resulted in catastrophic failure and loss of life, not to mention the backbiting and back stabbing that went on. Life at the job was a nightmare the last ten years there, I watched good dedicated employees go from self motivated hard workers to having to be told each step of the job plus having to be overseen each step of the way, they eventually quit. The same goes for a government system where all get paid the same regardless of effort expended, soon the goods and services will be rationed just like welfare and medicare. In the end I left in utter disgust, the company failed in less than five years and was taken over by a British firm which has further reduced employee benefits, yes I've been asked to return, they can KMA, I'll go to my grave with my skills before I give them away again.