When I think of the average American wage, of someone doing a low-paid but essential job, or of a GI putting his life on the line for his fellow countrymen, as I did on reading the report about the recent increase in salaries for university presidents ("Ivory Tower Executive Suite Gets C.E.O.-Level Salaries", November 15), I cannot help feeling disgust and contempt for the top dogs and their apologists, who rake in such disproportionately large salaries .

It is nauseating to hear such irrationality and injustice being rationalised and justified: why so-and-so is worth a dozen or more nurses or GI's . . . .

The "market", of course, is responsible. How convenient. But what kind of citizen solidarity, equality or morality do you call that?

I don't have any problems with income differentials - provided that they are reasonable and proportionate; but they are not. They are a disgrace, a shameful expression of man's "more animal than human " nature, on which we still choose to base our economy.

It is not just that such differentials are unjust: on a planet with more than 6 billion inhabitants, but limited natural resources and a finite carrying capacity, they are also an insurmountable, but as yet unacknowledged, obstacle to us ever achieving sustainability - without which there can be no future for our children and coming generations.

We are literally screwing (plundering) our planet - and we don't even realise it. If we did, I'm sure, we would stop, because no one wants to be cursed one day by their own children and grandchildren.