Rodney Hide: Mike Hosking right to keep pay secret

Full marks to Mike Hosking arguing that his salary should be kept secret and that he's fully entitled to whatever it is he earns.

He's on a total loser. And he knows it. He won't convince anyone and he's painting a big target on his backside. I admire his courage.

The great majority of us couldn't care less. But among us are the green-eyed rowdies who want all high flyers pulled down and everyone else pulled up.

The benchmark is usually just below a university professor's pay - they being the ones most vocal in demanding the great levelling.

Of course, there is a big difference between the university professor's pay and Hosking's. Hosking must earn his. The professor doesn't.

Hosking's business is commercial broadcasting. He has to earn more for his employers than they pay him otherwise he would be toast. That puts the ceiling to his pay. And his employers must pay him enough to prevent the competition tempting him to jump to their stations. That puts the floor to his pay.

His pay is negotiated between that floor and ceiling. It's the audience he delivers and its value that matters.

And so his pay is set by us choosing to watch and to listen to him. The green-eyed ones don't earn what he earns because they don't have his audience.

University professors' pay arrives each fortnight courtesy of the taxpayer regardless of value. A good lecture, or a bad lecture, makes no difference. There's no link between pay and performance.

There's also no choice for those paying. Their salary is squeezed out of taxpayers whether they like it or not.

But Hosking will never convince the them. Indeed, his defence will just enrage them. They will take to Twitter and Facebook to vent their rage and frustration.

They dress their envy in a demand for fairness when the world never will be fair in the way they want.

It would be a drab and stultifying world if everyone was paid what the green-eyed ones dictated. There would be no fun and no progress. The world would be run as one big government department from which there would be no escape.

I prefer freedom over having everyone made the same. I get to choose what I do. And allowing others like Hosking to be free means I benefit from their talent and hard work.

It also means the green-eyed ones have every opportunity to prove themselves.

For next to nothing they can broadcast over the internet. If they are good, they will attract an audience.

The 27-year-old "PewDiePie" made $20 million last year broadcasting on YouTube.

But they won't take the opportunity. That's their nature: they prefer bitching and whining to working hard, taking a risk and developing a talent.