Originally Posted by blackberry000:
“Yes I understand what you're saying, but for as long as the pro dancers are satisfied with their current salary, the BBC has no reason to be just and pay them an higher. And I'm sure the BBC is paying Bruce the minimum salary to keep him satisfied as well. His expectations are just higher than the pro dancers.
Take a law firm for example. For every hour of their employees' (the lawyers, not the support staff) time they charge the clients nearly 10 times what they actually pay their employees. Now they obviously make a lot of money from their employees. But they keep their employees satisfied with the bare minimum, and keep the rest of the money for themselves. And despite not getting all that the clients pay for them, the lawyers of the firm still get pretty lucrative salaries, so they have nothing to complain about.
”
This is the pivotal question of prices being set by market forces of supply and demand. Property and investment banking valuations
were set by market forces. Thanks to that we are now where we are. USA, UK, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, etc are effectively bankrupt, with the UK flogging her last aircraft carrier. Meanwhile Germany, Australia, China, South Africa, etc are doing fine thanks to
not allowing aforesaid laissez-faire market forces run riot in the crazy years.
Individuals budget from month to month. Patriarchs and matriarchs would take a longer view to include the next generation. It is political leaders who need to admit that longterm bankruptcy of today came out of short-term market forces of yesterday.
Nine Strictly seasons on, dancers and non-dancers may like to review, how has Strictly contributed to dance life in the UK? Should there be enlightened policy intervention by management to encourage development one way rather than another way?
Dance survived WW2 bombs so it will survive the Recession. In the dark days then as now, there is need for the uplands of the spirit, an intangible quality not seen on the balance sheets of BBC bean counters.
Is £35,000 before tax a good living? I would say the arts is not like assembly line piecework. If an artist performs well, let the contribution be so valued, let incentive reward be given.
How to get there? A dancer instinctively thinks of partner, not of union and collective bargaining. Leadership will need to come from an enlightened management as it has always done in the arts, i.e. from patron not from shop steward.