Whats The Point of Earning 100k Salaries in Ireland

The Law of diminishing returns to relates economic activity where it gets more expensive to produce once you pass a certain threshold

For example, if you have a field of corn, you can harvest 90% of the crop using a standard harvester costing 90,000, but if you want to harvest 95% of the crop, you need to spend more money on a more advanced machine, costing an extra 50,000 and if you want to harvest 99% of the crop, you need to spend money on hiring an army of farm workers to physically collect the left over corn from the field costing an extra 80,000c
The first 90% of the crop can be harvested for 1000 per percent yield, the additional 5% costs 10,000 per percent yield, and the additional 4% costs 20k per percent yield.

This is the law of diminishing returns. The closer you get to maximum production, the more expensive it gets, the optimum production is where the marginal income is slightly higher than the marginal cost of production.

For wages, the law of diminishing marginal returns kicks in at the thresholds where people may qualify for state benefits (eg, you no longer qualify for a medical card, or a higher education grant for your kids) it doesn't usually apply to higher incomes because even if your extra income from higher wages are eroded by tax, you're never going to get to a point where earning higher wages actually reduces your income. (unless you have some bizzare personal circumstance where your financial obligations increase the more you earn)

mariaalice wrote: »

I have relative living in the uk, have you take in to account council charges in the Uk although that might be cancelled our by the free health care I am not sure.

My Daughter pays something like £1,200 of council tax a year.

Very true, not something I included. We currently pay around £1,900 a year in council tax though as you said the NHS is completely free, which includes GP's.

Aidric wrote: »

Salary is aligned with responsibility. If you think that someone on 100k is just breezing through and working their 9-5 then you are badly misguided.

The point is valid. 100k is an achievable salary which does not bring senior managerial responsibility. It is not 9 till 5, but would not entail too much accountability. It is an achievable middle management salary.

If you were talking 150 / 200k +, I would agree with you. But I would add that I cannot think of anything worse than just 'breezing through'. Pressure and responsibility is good.....it keeps me on my toes and makes life interesting. Pressure only becomes stress if you don't respond to it well

NomadicGray wrote: »

Forget the cheap likes, I'm enjoying getting to you with such an obvious joke

I knew you were a funny guy but you are on a completely different level. When do you tour?

If you just look at the bare facts on the opening post it does look unfair.

VAT, VRT, Motor tax and many other charges are charged at the same rate whether you earn one euro or millions, you have to factor this in.

The more income you have the more you can write of against your taxes.

mariaalice wrote: »

On the money making you happy thing, have a good look at all the back ground information on Graham Dwyer.

People who believe that having money and statues type possession such as expensive car will make them happy tend to believe that very strongly and for them it might be true their whole sense of themselves is constructed form what they have.

The way I see it: money can't make me happy, but it can buy out many causes of unhappiness. What's left after that is my problem. I'll take that chance, thank you.

A friend of mine works in the City of London in a large multinational law firm- 24 hour a day operation. He is pulling in £160k pa plus bonuses and all the benefits you like- but he was no life to spend it.