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The income for a US senator or congressman is already literally exactly at the 95th percentile at 174,000. Making someone wealthy doesn't remove their incentive

The income for a US senator or congressman is already literally exactly at the 95th percentile at 174,000. Making someone wealthy doesn't remove their incentive to gather more wealth it gives them a stake and incentive to be more effectively corrupt.

socialist_coder 6y ago
175k is not enough... it needs to be 300k at least. maybe 500k. Something high enough that the risk-reward for corruption is less attractive. 175k is a nice life but not even remotely enough to have the lifestyle you'd expect for someone running our country.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  It is the nature of ambition not to be satiated. people making millions of dollars per year want to make billions. Billionaires strive to exceed their peers. Our leaders already have a lot to lose. Predictably most of our corruption isn't high risk blatant illegality its the boringly legal influence peddling where regular donations buy your "totally legitimate" interests and concerns additional consideration by decision makers instead of paying n dollars for a particular law. There is no reason to believe paying them 2-3x as much so they can be really wealthy would lead to electing better leaders. Our lawmakers make 175k directly in salary and aprox 1 million dollars for staff and 143k for office expenses. This is not including the cost of the lifetime pension they will qualify after only 5 years and lifetime health plan for themselves and spouse after 10 years in the house or 8 in the senate. Hint I know they pay I think 28% of the cost of their gold plan. Lifetime a 2 term senator will cost the tax payers near 18 million dollars in total.
wpietri 6y ago
The number I saw was $300k. But either way, I don't think that's true. Countries with endemic corruption tend to underpay people. E.g., countries where you have to bribe cops and bureaucrats are ones where those people have a hard time making a living on their normal salary. Some people, of course, are infinitely greedy. But most people aren't. E.g., most developers I know aren't maximizing their income fully, and they definitely aren't criming to make even more money.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  I don't think increasing the pay of lawmakers from 175k to 300k would decrease the corrupting influence of money.
  - wpietri 6y ago
    Good thing that's not the only part to what we're discussing then.

socialist_coder 6y ago

175k is not enough... it needs to be 300k at least. maybe 500k. Something high enough that the risk-reward for corruption is less attractive. 175k is a nice life but not even remotely enough to have the lifestyle you'd expect for someone running our country.

michaelmrose 6y ago
It is the nature of ambition not to be satiated. people making millions of dollars per year want to make billions. Billionaires strive to exceed their peers. Our leaders already have a lot to lose. Predictably most of our corruption isn't high risk blatant illegality its the boringly legal influence peddling where regular donations buy your "totally legitimate" interests and concerns additional consideration by decision makers instead of paying n dollars for a particular law. There is no reason to believe paying them 2-3x as much so they can be really wealthy would lead to electing better leaders. Our lawmakers make 175k directly in salary and aprox 1 million dollars for staff and 143k for office expenses. This is not including the cost of the lifetime pension they will qualify after only 5 years and lifetime health plan for themselves and spouse after 10 years in the house or 8 in the senate. Hint I know they pay I think 28% of the cost of their gold plan. Lifetime a 2 term senator will cost the tax payers near 18 million dollars in total.

wpietri 6y ago

The number I saw was $300k. But either way, I don't think that's true. Countries with endemic corruption tend to underpay people. E.g., countries where you have to bribe cops and bureaucrats are ones where those people have a hard time making a living on their normal salary. Some people, of course, are infinitely greedy. But most people aren't. E.g., most developers I know aren't maximizing their income fully, and they definitely aren't criming to make even more money.

michaelmrose 6y ago
I don't think increasing the pay of lawmakers from 175k to 300k would decrease the corrupting influence of money.
- wpietri 6y ago
  Good thing that's not the only part to what we're discussing then.