Nathan replied that he didn't have enough education. Rush asked him his age. Nathan answered, "31." Rush said, "The only thing keeping you from making that much money, or more, is you."

Nathan hung up. He didn't want to hear this. He'd bought the fiction that there are limited amounts of money available and if an AIG employee is making more than he is, Nathan is being deprived of money that could be his.

Limbaugh said that making $250,000 is difficult, but not impossible with the right education, experience and most importantly, persistence.

Who teaches such values today? If you don't succeed, it's someone else's fault, not yours. Others who have succeeded owe it to you to make things "fair." Instead of attending to ways in which our own lives and circumstances might be improved, too many try to bring others down to their level. That never improves conditions for the ones at the bottom, but it makes them feel better, which is the objective of liberal politicians who want to keep people in sufficient misery so they'll continue to win their votes. It apparently doesn't occur to the miserable that they have a ticket out of their circumstances, if they will only climb aboard the right train.

Secretary Geithner wants AIG and executives at other companies that receive tax dollars to be paid according to performance. That is a standard most of us would like to see applied to Congress, which enjoys annual pay increases no matter how much incompetence, malfeasance and misfeasance it demonstrates.

If it is a good idea to tie teacher pay to performance (and it is), it is a better idea to link the pay of politicians to performance. Look for that about the time Congress votes for term limits.