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> I was surprised that the Speaker of the House earn 250k. That seems too low. Maybe! But what if politics wasn’t a career? What if there was no profit motiv

• krapp 3y ago
  >But what if politics wasn’t a career? What if there was no profit motive? What type of people would it attract? The only kind of people I can think of willing to put up with the negatives of high political office (which include a non-zero chance of conspiracies to assassinate you) for no or little pay would be zealots and ideologues, likely already independently wealthy.
  • mulmen 3y ago
    One person’s zealot or ideologue is another’s heroic activist. Rather than making politics a career what if people were only involved long enough to make the specific change they wanted to see?
    • krapp 3y ago
      Having every politician only able to execute specific short term goals would make long-term planning and complex policy goals impossible to achieve. Most politicians would simply undo their predecessor's policies in favor of their own, or else accomplish nothing due to gridlock. It would wind up being the political version of Twitch Plays Pokemon.
      • mulmen 3y ago
        That sounds reasonable and you might even be right. But I’m not certain. The tech sector is famously productive, arguably even too productive. But average time in a specific job is similar to congressional terms. If people with specific expertise and goals in mind are in congress they could compromise to achieve those goals just like we do in the private sector.