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That's a good way to ensure that only the very wealthy run for office. A professional might make $200k/yr, which is a nice household income - but "only" 85th pe
by IncreasePosts 1y ago
That's a good way to ensure that only the very wealthy run for office. A professional might make $200k/yr, which is a nice household income - but "only" 85th percentile - and their family probably can't afford(with their lifestyle) to make only $50k/yr.
- JKCalhoun 1y agoOr the very dedicated.
- tjwebbnorfolk 1y agoDedicated to obtaining power? I'd much rather have a person there who doesn't need the money vs. one who does.
- runako 1y agoEven the very dedicated would have trouble maintaining two residences (DC & home district) on the median income.
- notahacker 1y agoYep. Perversely it probably increases the chance of them being out of touch with the average citizen, because the average person doesn't have the connections or drive or paper credentials to run for Congress anyway, and if the people that do are sacrificing the chance to earn much higher salaries it's probably because they're rich enough to be completely indifferent to their paycheck.
- t-3 1y agoThe way election campaigning works already ensures that only the very wealthy or incredibly dedicated can run for office. Who else can afford to take time out of their schedule to travel, give speeches and attend campaign events and fundraisers, do interviews, schmooze donors, etc? A representative democracy already selects for the wealthy from the get-go, so the $174k current Congressional salary is more or less inconsequential to those folks that do run.