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I'm completely fine with politicians being paid significantly more if them, their partners and their relatives faced serious prison time is they did the sort of

I'm completely fine with politicians being paid significantly more if them, their partners and their relatives faced serious prison time is they did the sort of insider trading that is considered completely normal and weirdly they're allowed to do but it's illegal if the lowly plebs do it. End of the day these people are paid very little on paper for the amount of pressure and responsibility yet if you follow their finances they're all building fortunes. Same should apply to funneling money into charities/businesses/"programs" where their relatives are on the boards. They're in such a privileged position I don't consider any of this unreasonable.

realce 5y ago
Here here! I think we need to deeply reexamine how much we pay officials. Senators/Governors should probably get triple their current pay with severe penalties for any financial fraud. This was one of the better Andrew Yang points too. Reps have very little financial incentive to do the "right thing" and we could help them realign that incentive by just paying them more.
- logicchains 5y ago
  > Here here! I think we need to deeply reexamine how much we pay officials. Senators/Governors should probably get triple their current pay with severe penalties for any financial fraud. Singapore is an example of why this doesn't work. It pays the prime minister $5 million/year, in theory to prevent corruption. However he got around this by making his wife CEO of Temasek, Singapore's national investment company which everybody is mandated to invest in via the central provident fund. And it's all perfectly on the books and legal, because the PM creates the law, in spite of the fact that in any other context it'd be considered corruption.
  - InitialLastName 5y ago
    I don't know that Singapore (effectively a single-party state whose PM has dictatorship levels of power) is the best example of how this works in a republic (or sub-republic) with separated powers.
    - yunohn 5y ago
      Every major democracy is effectively a two party system. Further, both parties are usually quite corrupt, despite claiming to be the opposite of the other.
      - InitialLastName 5y ago
        Even granted that, in a (n>1)-party system there is the capacity for electoral repercussions for individuals who demonstrate extraordinary corruption (as in the situation we are discussing here). In a single-party unitary system, there isn't even that possibility.
  - pirate787 5y ago
    On the other hand, Singapore judges are well paid and their courts are considered among the most honest in the world.
b3morales 5y ago
U.S. Reps and Senators have an annual salary of around $180,000*, which is in the order of twice the national median income. Why do you think they need to be paid more? --- *They also have a baked-in-statute annual cost of living adjustment, which is more than we can say for the vast majority of people in the country. Though they have voted not to take it for the last decade. (If they had, I believe the current salary would be upwards of $200K.)
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > U.S. Reps and Senators have an annual salary of $180,000 $174,000, except for the Speaker of the House ($223,500) and the President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Majority and Minority leaders in both houses (all $193,400). > which is in the order of twice the national median income. Its almost 5 times the median personal income ($36K), and almost 3 times the median household income ($62K).
  - b3morales 5y ago
    Thanks, I guess I was misremembering the household income as being in the 70s.
- s1artibartfast 5y ago
  >U.S. Reps and Senators have an annual salary of around $180,000*, which is in the order of twice the national median income. Why do you think they need to be paid more? This is less than a fresh college grad working at FAANG or Big Law. Google starts around 190 [1], and big law starts at 205k [2] I think this comes down to what incentives we want in place. Do we only want smart people who are willing to sacrifice income for public service. Maybe that is the case and this is irrelevant. https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&track=Software%20Engineer#contribute-home https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&tr... https://abovethelaw.com/2021/06/paul-weiss-raise-2021/ https://abovethelaw.com/2021/06/paul-weiss-raise-2021/
  - pirate787 5y ago
    Actually what you get are rich people who don't need the low salary.

realce 5y ago

Here here! I think we need to deeply reexamine how much we pay officials. Senators/Governors should probably get triple their current pay with severe penalties for any financial fraud. This was one of the better Andrew Yang points too. Reps have very little financial incentive to do the "right thing" and we could help them realign that incentive by just paying them more.

logicchains 5y ago
> Here here! I think we need to deeply reexamine how much we pay officials. Senators/Governors should probably get triple their current pay with severe penalties for any financial fraud. Singapore is an example of why this doesn't work. It pays the prime minister $5 million/year, in theory to prevent corruption. However he got around this by making his wife CEO of Temasek, Singapore's national investment company which everybody is mandated to invest in via the central provident fund. And it's all perfectly on the books and legal, because the PM creates the law, in spite of the fact that in any other context it'd be considered corruption.
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  I don't know that Singapore (effectively a single-party state whose PM has dictatorship levels of power) is the best example of how this works in a republic (or sub-republic) with separated powers.
  - yunohn 5y ago
    Every major democracy is effectively a two party system. Further, both parties are usually quite corrupt, despite claiming to be the opposite of the other.
    - InitialLastName 5y ago
      Even granted that, in a (n>1)-party system there is the capacity for electoral repercussions for individuals who demonstrate extraordinary corruption (as in the situation we are discussing here). In a single-party unitary system, there isn't even that possibility.
- pirate787 5y ago
  On the other hand, Singapore judges are well paid and their courts are considered among the most honest in the world.

b3morales 5y ago

U.S. Reps and Senators have an annual salary of around $180,000*, which is in the order of twice the national median income. Why do you think they need to be paid more? --- *They also have a baked-in-statute annual cost of living adjustment, which is more than we can say for the vast majority of people in the country. Though they have voted not to take it for the last decade. (If they had, I believe the current salary would be upwards of $200K.)

dragonwriter 5y ago
> U.S. Reps and Senators have an annual salary of $180,000 $174,000, except for the Speaker of the House ($223,500) and the President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Majority and Minority leaders in both houses (all $193,400). > which is in the order of twice the national median income. Its almost 5 times the median personal income ($36K), and almost 3 times the median household income ($62K).
- b3morales 5y ago
  Thanks, I guess I was misremembering the household income as being in the 70s.
s1artibartfast 5y ago
>U.S. Reps and Senators have an annual salary of around $180,000*, which is in the order of twice the national median income. Why do you think they need to be paid more? This is less than a fresh college grad working at FAANG or Big Law. Google starts around 190 [1], and big law starts at 205k [2] I think this comes down to what incentives we want in place. Do we only want smart people who are willing to sacrifice income for public service. Maybe that is the case and this is irrelevant. https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&track=Software%20Engineer#contribute-home https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&tr... https://abovethelaw.com/2021/06/paul-weiss-raise-2021/ https://abovethelaw.com/2021/06/paul-weiss-raise-2021/
- pirate787 5y ago
  Actually what you get are rich people who don't need the low salary.