OPINION

World's richest man

Re: "Musk's pay proposal faces more headwinds", (World, June 1).

The Tesla board will on Thursday be considering Elon Musk's total pay package with a proposed value of $56 billion (2 trillion baht). This is simply not right.

Based on the average US teacher's salary of $58,210, he is earning the same as 962,034 teachers, or 1 million individual teachers roughly. Even the president only gets $400,000, about seven teacher salaries, a lot of money, but possibly acceptable given that they are looking over 300 million people.

I might be biased as a retired teacher but no one on this planet can make a million times the contribution that I did and so should not be paid that much. A good solution would be to keep 1 billion, still a generous salary, give $50 billion to hire more teachers and use $5 billion to build a rocket that doesn't explode.

Historical woes

Re: "More to China's Story", (PostBag, June 9).

Historically, Michael Setter was correct in blaming the cause of China's ills during the Qing dynasty on pervasive corruption. However, ML Krisdakorn is also correct that China's ills were aggravated by foreigners who took advantage of its weaknesses and exploited them during the 20th century.

During this time, there was allegedly a sign in a park in the foreign-administered Shanghai that read: "Chinese and Dogs Not Admitted". Prior to that, there was the use of opium during the Qing as exploited by the West and the two Opium Wars. But when it comes to exploitation, neither side can be exclusively blamed for China's ills, which some recognise as human development. Imperialism was started by the Portuguese in their search for the new world. There were also structural benefits to being colonised.

However, to state the present ruler of China as negative to human rights and destructive to the human soul is extreme when China has now become a country that the West, especially America, has to reckon with. The West may have its own standards, and China has different standards. As one of China's diplomats said, the West may use a fork and spoon, but the Chinese use chopsticks.

Do call me a China apologist, but not a habitual one.

Win-win real estate

Re: "Bad property idea", (PostBag, June 8).

I thank Khun Vichai for finding my "suggestion to open up Thailand's real estate sector to foreign buyers to be extremely short-sighted", for that gives us a rational, rather than emotional, discussion of the issue.

We should seek solutions to land ownership problems that both reduce potential harm to society while retaining the benefits of investment; in short, win-win remedies targeting the problem -- not at the purchaser's passport. For example, to curb excessive speculation, which makes homes unaffordable to locals, heavily tax real estate sales/leases that occur within 10 years of purchase (regardless of nationality, as speculation by Thais can be just as harmful as that by non-Thais). To make homes affordable to local youth, subsidise mortgage payments for the first homes of local residents (regardless of nationality; to discourage absentee owners, we could limit eligibility to residents of the province the property was in). How could my suggestions be improved upon, to be even more of a win-win?