Try going to college for 8 years, then working 16hrs a day on double shifts, then watching someone that does no work get paid close to what you do. You'll start to see things differently.

For an entire year, I woke up at 4am every weekday, worked 60hrs a week, and made $8.00hr + overtime. No benefits. It's called unskilled labor. You see, in an economy, some people do things that are more valuable than others. They have the ability to do, say, and understand things better than others. Because of this, they may be entitled to earn compensation that exeedes those that work the same number of hours, but did not put any time into education, to do a good job.

They could invent a cure for cancer. That may be worth $10 million a year. There are plenty of things out there that could justify $10m/yr if market conditions were correct. You can deride CEOs and athletes all you like, but as consumers, we create the nessecary conditions for their pay to exist. If you want to lower a CEO's salary, then stop buying his company's products. If you want to make an athelete earn less, stop watching him play his sport, and don't buy his product.

again you miss the point, many people are failed by the education system, i.e they have a learning difficulty and didnt get the extra help they needed (learning difficulties again are genetic) is it really fair to slam them for not being able to do better?

im sorry, but what job is so hard you need 100k+ in order to be motivated to do it?

Italicized part: Really? Stock Brokers do something more valuable than, dentists, doctors, farmers or even contractors/builders?

Bold: This type of rationalization typically comes when we try to explain inequity and chance. In reality differences are probably marginal, and most of what we deem success is not on individual ability but rather fortune/chance. Of course if you believe that their is some sort of supreme order or logic to the world, then of course that would entail chaos and would be very frightening.

I'd really like to see you provide empirical data that shows how many people are failed by the education system due to a clinically-proven learning difficulty versus those that had no disability and just did bad because they decided to.

What job is so hard that you need 100k to be motivated to do it?

• Doctor - 8yr degree. Usually lots of overtime. Get sued a lot by angry patients that thought they got bad service.
• Lawyer - 8yr degree. Most are jerks, but some are real smart and know a lot about the law, and use their years of learning to help ensure you don't do something illegal, or help guide your business.
• Computer Programmer - 4yr degree. Lots are salary, and forced to work many hours of overtime to push out a product, and ensure that it works well.
  

There are lots of jobs that could fall underneath that category. It really just depends on market conditions. Why should someone that has no secondary education make near the same amount of money bagging groceries as a man that's dedicated years to a specific profession, and is among the top in his field?

Stock brokers help allocate investor funding in projects that can be critical for the development of a nation. Dentists, builders, doctors and farmers may rely on investments to start up their practices, as they've most likely spent their money on education, or equipment for their field. You may not agree that stock brokers need paid real well (and I can agree with you that they're overpaid), but their market dictates that they can earn a lot.

So you think that Brett Farve being a better QB than Ryan Leaf was entirely up to fortune? Chance allows Pele to be a better football player than Kyle Patterson? Yes, fortune and chance may be in the case of some, but it's certainly not in the majority. If chance and fortune dictated life, then every nation in the world would be equal in development.

Really.  THAT ONE PERSON cures cancer.  Or THAT ONE PERSON personally enables the research team to cure cancer.  I'm not saying the market doesn't create conditions that enable those salaries to exist, obviously it does.*  But a lot of those people make salaries that are out of proportion to what they truly, actually accomplish in a day.

*[edit:  I'm not denying that some extraordinary individuals exist that deserve enormous paychecks.  But although an investor who can see the subprime crisis coming ahead of time may be literally worth his weight in gold, I don't think this guy is fat enough to be worth 3 or 4 BILLION.] 

"(and I can agree with you that they're overpaid)"

So now you agree that some people are in fact paid out of proportion to actual worth; now I presume we're talking about who and how much. I'm less interested in hashing that out, although I could point out a few egregious examples if I wasn't about to go to sleep.

so anyone who doesent get straight A's is an idiot who didnt try hard enough? maybe they just arent suited to the education system you have in place?

most kids dont decide what careers they want based on how much they pay, most kids pick careers they want to do, ask most 13 year olds, and they will tell you they dont know how much a doctor is payed or how much a nurse is payed

On an individual level it's easy to say that x person has greater abilties than y person. My point was that on a larger scale, yes chance plays a larger role than ability. Brett Favre may be one of the greatest quarterbacks, out of people who tried out to play quarterback, who had the urge, or the encouragement to play quarterback, who happened to get accepted to a division one school which aided him in his transition into the nfl. Yes, he has the ability to play quarterback, but I think there are hundreds of people out their who could do the same, or even better.

Bold - How exactly? Wouldn't that be a case that shows chance really dictates life? Like the chance that some chauffer would do a three-point turn instead of driving straight ahead, giving a serbian nationalist the oppurtunity to shoot franz ferdinand.