The most lucrative skill in our society? The ability to dispel boredom

Who are the most valued people in society? I’m sure that question has crossed your mind too when you see pay levels for leading public servants, Government ministers, hospital consultants, lawyers, editors (careful now, Mr McGarry! – Ed).

Teaching has been described as the noblest profession, tasked with preparing children for their lives ahead. Few would disagree that it’s among the most precious of professions, yet the general pay levels are modest, if better in Ireland than other countries. That probably reflects the traditional high value Irish people have placed on education.

Then, last month, no less a personage than Pope Francis spoke of “the nobility of politics” in his encyclical on climate change, Laudate Deum.

Here in Ireland our politicians are well paid, but salaries are hardly excessive. Last September, for instance, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar disclosed that his take-home pay was less than €100,000 after tax and pension deductions from his €230,372 salary.

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Hospital consultants, who many would feel are among the most important people in society with, literally, powers of life and death over lives, are on a basic salary that rises to €252,000 a year.

These figures, in the main, compare reasonably favourably to pay for similar positions abroad. My point (finally), dear reader, is that if we use pay as an indicator of who we value most in society it includes none of the above, not teacher, doctor, political leaders.

Going alone on what we are prepared to pay, the most important people in this and other societies are our entertainers. We do not quibble at paying through the nose to see them perform, or question their earning millions. We may envy their talent, but we do not resent them, and why?

In my view it’s because they perform that hugely significant role in a society where people have leisure, as in most of the developed world. They dispel boredom. They thrill, amuse, express what we cannot, raise us up, bring us down, give a brief intensity to our lives – an experience.

We value that greatly. It is why our leading musicians, singers, artists, actors can name their price, and we are only too happy to pay it. It would not happen with our teachers, doctors, politicians.

Entertain, from Latin inter, “among” + tenir “to hold”, for “to keep (someone) in a certain frame of mind”.

inaword@irishtimes.com