The reaction this week from various media organisations to the pay packet of Allan Moss and senior Macquarie Bank executives was reminiscent of the coverage of the US economy in Soviet Russia. Most of the coverage was cringe-worthy — and fell into the trap of mixing two separate issues.

Are employees in investment banking, private equity and hedge funds overpaid vis-a-vis society and are the Macbank executives overpaid relative to their industry peers. The answer to the first is yes, but the answer to the second is no.

On the first question, you would be hard-pressed to find a stockbroker in Australia who believes that their contribution to society is equal to that of a nurse or a teacher. Then again, the same logic applies to Sonny Bill Williams, Ricky Ponting, Naomi Watts or Keith Urban. So where is the journalistic outrage around celebrity pay?

At least a stockbroker, investment banker or fund manager is — hopefully — making your eventual superannuation payout larger and your retirement better.

On the second issue, there is a compelling argument that Allan Moss is underpaid. And the fact that Macbank has remained Australian-based provides greater benefits to our country than it does to Macbank, given most of its revenue is now derived overseas.

Half of the Macbank board are Harvard alumni whose class peers are not the who’s who of the Melbourne Club, but the who’s who of the global corporate world. Comparing Allan Moss to an average Australia CEO is like comparing a BMW Seven Series to a Trabant.

He has created enormous shareholder wealth and his remuneration has not increased commensurate with the $40 billion in wealth creation that Macbank has delivered since listing.

Furthermore, an examination of the recently released Forbes list of the top 20 paid US fund managers highlights that Allan Moss at $33 million looks cheap compared with 32-year-old John Arnold of Centaurus Capital in Houston. He pocketed $US760m last year.

Then there is the issue of the tax that Macbank pays:  $377million. That pays for a lot of hospital beds, schools, aged-care services, disability services and other public services.

Let’s leave the tall poppy syndrome in the dustbin of history with the back issues of Pravda.

Disclosure: I am a former Macbanker — but unfortunately no longer have any Macbank shares or options.