Give them a medal

We've done remarkably well in the Olympics. Great Britain are second in the medals table. We haven't got this many medals since 1908, the first time we hosted the games, when we got 147. Back then, there were only 22 countries competing, and we owned most of them, so it was probably easier to get a good haul, but still.

A lot of fuss has been made about other countries paying vast bonuses to their athletes for winning medals. Some of the noise has been about the fact that our athletes are getting no bonus from the British government, that they are competing for the honour alone, but the general implication is that all these other athletes are somehow tainting the sport by accepting this vast incentive. It makes me sad, but not for the reason you might think. It makes me sad that accepting money for doing a job you enjoy has somehow been labelled grubby. It can't be getting paid that is at issue; I'm sure the people who are moaning all have jobs. I suspect the real problem is that those who are complaining don't actually like their jobs. Being paid to be miserable is fine, it would seem, but accepting money for something you would want to do anyway is not.

I have news for you. The British athletes are also getting paid. Do you know how I know this? Because they have to eat. It turns out, no matter how much you love doing something, you can't ignore the fact that you have to pay for rent, electricity, heating and ultimately food. Everyone has to get paid by someone, otherwise they couldn't continue doing what they are doing, and the British athletes are no exception. At the basic level, UK Sport funds what is known as an Athlete Performance Award. This is basically a means testing salary to allow the athlete living expenses while they spend every day training. It is awarded on the basis of having won medals, or the likelihood to continue winning medals. On top of this, there is sponsorship and advertising. Winning a gold medal (or even a boring old silver or bronze) is a fantastic piece of PR, even if that isn't the primary intent. Jason Kenny and Laura Trott are likely to become very rich in the coming year, not because they'll have been awarded a bonus for their Olympic medals, but because every Fortune 100 company and their horse will want to have their name associated with the golden couple's astonishing success.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it's not because I want to denigrate the Olympians' success. Far from it. I believe they should be rewarded. They have achieved the astonishing, and it brightens everyone's lives to have been able to share in this. Instead, I would rather we stop thinking about money as something to be avoided. I'm tired of hearing about people doing worthy jobs, nurses, doctors, teachers, who live on a pittance because there's is a 'calling', whereas the poor old city boys have to suffer from doing a job that benefits only themselves, and should therefore be paid a fortune for their 'sufferance'.

In reality, everyone should do the job they enjoy, and everyone should be paid in proportion to how much others benefit. In fact, despite extravagant claims from the likes of Donald Trump, this was the original principle of capitalism. To encourage each to contribute to society to the best of their abilities (where encourage, in this case, means ply with huge piles of cash) and to supply each according to their needs (by using that cash to buy the things they want). And perhaps that's the real point of this rambling rant. To encourage everyone to find a job that makes them happy. If you think the athletes are being overpaid just because they're happy, it probably means you're unhappy because you think that's the only way to get paid.

So let's all find something that we can do and we like. Whether what floats your boat is selling soap, baking cakes, fixing cars or even floating boats, make sure that's what you do all day every day. It doesn't just have to be the athletes. Anyone can do it. Maybe even you.