I WAS amazed at the sentiments expressed by J Norwood. Recent evidence hardly shows that the ever-increasing number of millionaires in society equates to them having worked harder than the rest of us.

The truth is that real power begets wealth - as it always has. Top management, beside being drawn from a narrow strata of society, can, in the absence of effective countervailing power, make rules as it wishes, and as such pay itself what rewards it wishes.

A brilliant example of the above is the rash of privatisations in the service industries during the last decade or so. This has resulted in a massive shift in resources from the public to the private sector, and as such, has given unequalled opportunities for "fat cats" to get even fatter.

Much wealth, some of it public, has found its way into the pockets of the directors of Railtrack. Is this down to hard work? If so, why has the company such a poor record for efficient operation?

Regarding Mr Norwood's second point, the top rate of income tax has fallen from 83 per cent to 40 per cent during the last quarter-century. This, with the attendant rises in VAT, has resulted in a shift in the tax burden to the point where the poor now pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than the rich.

Finally, people in the lower bands of the council tax system pay a great proportion of their house values in tax than do those in the higher ones. Why?

A J C EVANS,

Callow End.