In the same week that Prince Alwaleed complained to Forbes about not being high enough up its list of billionaires, a different sort of complaint was being made in an industrial tribunal in east London. Stella English, a former winner of Lord Sugar’s The Apprentice show, claimed that the £100,000 job she had won as a prize had been previously done by someone on a salary of a mere £35,000, making her feel an “overpaid lackey”.
Prince Alwaleed’s protest might be unseemly but at least it’s is psychologically straightforward. If Mr Forbes says you’ve only got $20bn when you think you’ve got more, I dare say it is quite annoying.
But to complain about earning too much is more outlandish. No one does it. If you type “I’m overpaid” into Google, all you get is RBS chief executive Stephen Hester saying “even my parents think I’m overpaid” – which isn’t the same as thinking it himself. And Bono saying “I’m overpaid, so shoot me” – which is the sort of thing uppity rock stars say simply to wind up annoying journalists.