Thats the thing - its not a high risk job so it doesn't deserve a high reward. Its not that stressful (well not like being a soldier in Iraq for example) and plenty of people lower down the chain work just as long hours, under just as much pressure, for a fraction of their wages.

Furthermore whilst there is high responsibility it is mostly a moral one. After all the money he gambled with was not his and screwing the bank up didn't alter his final payout so why act responsibly? Who cares if you lose a billion when it won't do you any harm? 

Personally I feel the answer it simple. He should get his pension - but in RBS shares. Or rather his pension pot should be used to buy RBS shares at the price they were when he got the job, but given to him at their current value. And so it should be with all business execs, payment based on share price. Run the company into the ground and your £650000 pension becomes worth 20p..............

The problem with the old nationalised industrys, and indeed to some extent the higher echleons of the current banking and finance industry that created this mess is the 'you get paid whatever' policy. If screwing up costs you nothing personally (because the state bails you out or you get a 6 figure annual bonus despite the companies shares plunging) why make an effort.

This is painfully obvious in my field of work (teaching) and all across the public sector - the last 'nationalised industrys' if you will:

I get paid the same whether I work hard, or slack off.

I get paid the same if my kids pass or fail.

I get paid the same if I'm never off or if I'm mysteriously 'sick' every other week.

And to cap it all even if I do no actual work, am always off and my kids all get U's I'm practically impossible to fire! 

 The irony is I do work hard, I haven't had a day off sick in years and my results are good, which to many makes me a mug! Truth is I do what I do because I love it, not for the money but that can't be the case in many jobs.

What is needed is a new breed of nationalised free market businesses. What are they? Well picture a typical free market privatised company, with all its easy hire / easy fire policies, bonuses for working well and a drive to get maximum profit for the shareholders whatever the cost, except the shareholders are the british public. 

With this model the company might well still decide its cheaper to make stuff in China, or here but employ foreign labour and it won't matter. Because all the profit gets ploughed back in to Britain. Not so much a country, more a corparation! 

All this 'live nearer where you work' stuff is forgetting some very important things about modern employment patterns:

a) The job for life is gone. In many fields you are expected to move on after 5 years. Lots of employers only offer temporary contracts. When you move job, do you have to move house?

b) Most households are now dual income, and indeed rely on that. If I change my job, but my wife does not, I can't move neaer to my work without in theory moving further from hers.

c) House prices are already sky high, and whilst they may be falling, since you can't get a mortgage you can't move anyway. And the houses in the best locations (which if we can't drive far would be the ones nearest work/bus/train) command the highest prices. The result - the poorest have the furthest to travel. 

d) Train and buses companies are out to make a profit. Price people out of their cars and onto the train and they will surely gorge their new customers with massive price rises. In the end they don't care about environments or congestion, just money. 

My first Alp's trip was a bit of a mistake. Thanks to work commitments I arrived the day all the other XC guys from the club left, leaving me with the downhillers, on a 4in Klein recently fitted with narrow carbon flats. Still I figured I'm here, might as well have a go. And I loved every second of it.

Sure, the DH guys shot off on every descent leaving me in their dust, but I still got down everything. And it wasn't till one of the guys crashed big on my second day I really considered I was in XC lycra with no protection bar a skid lid. A set of arm and knee pads later I considered that issue solved too. 

I went back the next year with a 7in freeride bike, full armour and a full face. I was a bit faster but I also crashed a lot more often, and broken my bike and myself. Which I would say proves Al's point - the XC bike wasn't holding me back, my skills were.