If I can stick my nose in where it doesn't belong, I talked about this a little in my prior post (#33...).
I think that it's about diminishing returns. (If I made that kind of dough.....) I would work equally as hard for dollar #250,001 as I did for dollar #1. However, I'd get to keep substantially less of it.
Most people, not all but most, have a point where they say "Why bother?". In my case, I'm underpaid for my position in my field. However, the trade-off is that I work 8 to 5 with no nights, weekends, or travel. Heck, for the moment anyway, I don't even carry a cell phone! (It's heaven, after taking 3am phone calls on a near-nightly basis. I'm sure that all good things will come to an end, eventually, though.....)
Could I command a higher salary in a different position? Sure. Easily. Probably wouldn't take more than a phone call or three. But I'd lose dinners with my family, and Cub Scout outings, and sleep at night, and school Christmas Plays, and, and, and.......
For some people, I'm sure that it doesn't matter. They want to wring every penny out of what they can make. Or, they've not sat down and figured out what they're *really* making at the end of the day (I know a lot of 2-income families where one is working only to pay taxes, day-care and commuting expenses. I can't wrap my head around THAT one!).
But for a good handful of people that I know, quality is more important than quantity.
You left out the part where you'd be willing to miss all those things for the right price.
Am I correct in assuming you wouldn't? In that case, this isn't really the right argument - even though I agree with you 100%.