Mass hierarchy and the spectrum of scalars

We use the natural $SU(3)\times U(1)$ global symmetry of the gauge-fermion interaction sector of the standard model to discuss the fermion mass hierarchy problem. The $SU(3)$ sixtet and triplet Higgs are introduced. The Yukawa sector is partially symmetric. The smaller the symmetry of a Yukawa term, the smaller its coupling constant. The mass hierarchy is a combined effect of smaller coupling constants and smaller VEVs. There is a bunch of pseudo-goldstone bosons which obtains their masses mainly from the small explicit breaking terms in the Higgs potential.