everyone is overpaid

Who deserves to be well-paid?  Who should make enough to buy a house and send their kids to college?   What factors are important?  Does it matter how undesirable the job is?  Does it matter how long it takes and how expensive it is to prepare for that career?  Does it matter how hard the person has to work?  Does it matter how beneficial their service is to the rest of society?  Does it matter how few people would have the skills, talent, or patience to do that particular job?

Teachers in Wisconsin average 50k/year.  Is that enough to buy a house and save 200k+/child for college?  OK, maybe they don't deserve to send their kids to a private college, so lets say 80k/kid at a state school (assuming that tuition will continue to rise and that the teacher has small children).   Remember, normal folks pay around 25% income tax, so that 50k is really only a take-home pay of $37,500.  Is that enough to buy a house and save 160k for your two childrens' state school education.  And let's not forget that this teacher may have his or her own student loans to pay off.  But some people are saying that they make too much money.   So apparently we value teachers and the work that they do, but they should not be able to partake of the American dream.  What do you think they should make?  A maximum of 40k/year?

What about policemen?  They risk their lives to keep us safe, work odd hours, and have to deal with situations from which the rest of us would run.  Firefighters too.  They don't have student loans to pay off, so perhaps we should cap them at 30k.  They'll just have to rent an apartment and give up on the prospect of sending their kids to school.

So what about the gardener.  He works hard doing manual labor that you and I don't want to do.  The physical toll his work exacts on his body means that he will have less productive years.  But it is relatively unskilled labor and not very dangerous, so perhaps they should be capped at 20k/year.  They will need to share an apartment with another family. 

How about your local store clerk?  Unskilled, no student loans, not a dangerous environment.  They certainly don't deserve more than 12k/year.  They will need dormitory living arrangements, and forget about procreating.   

So who does deserve to partake of the American dream of home ownership and education for their kids.  Should that be reserved for only those born into wealth?  Only those who own companies?   Really, who do you think should have these opportunities, and what is the basis upon which you decide that one is deserving and another is not?  Please share.