The golden rule is don't reveal your salary ... just show it off instead
How much we all get paid to do our jobs is a tricky subject. While most people are not happy to tell you what they earn, many are delighted to show you – by means of what sociologists refer to as "conspicuous consumption". In other words, they spend their salaries on ostentatious displays of wealth. I'm thinking principally here of pirates (lots of gold teeth, gaudy jewellery and perhaps a parrot on the shoulder) and the kind of gentlemen who drive around south-east London's rougher thoroughfares in snow-white Bentleys with blacked-out windows and a pavement-shaking stereo. (These fellas also favour lots of gold teeth, emerald rings the size of snooker balls and perhaps a pitbull on the shoulder.)