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Pay peanuts, get monkeys. And if US politicians are expected to be free of corruption and draw an average salary nobody would even be willing to do it. Statisti
by roenxi 1y ago
Pay peanuts, get monkeys. And if US politicians are expected to be free of corruption and draw an average salary nobody would even be willing to do it. Statistically the US president is one of the most dangerous jobs around [0] and all the politicians are subject to tides of abuse whether they seem to be doing a principled job or not.
The US would be far better off figuring out how to make its politicians do a good job before worrying about how outrageously they are compensated. Even the current fog of corruption they manage isn't as big a deal as the policies they push through as part of their routine above-the-counter activities. It's a sausage factory, the process of making the sausage isn't going to be pretty.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presiden... alone and you just need to look at Obama before and after to see what the stress does.
- sumeno 1y ago> Pay peanuts, get monkeys As opposed to now with all the highly qualified congresspersons.
- lesuorac 1y agoName 1 company that makes over $1 Billion in annual revenue where somebody 2 links below the top makes less than a congressional salary. Congress critters are paid peanuts and also rent in an above-median cost of living area as well as their own district. ~150k sounds like a big salary but when you're very much in charge of trillions of annual revenue it's not.
- sumeno 1y agoThis is like the CEOs who "only get paid $1" Salary is not where congresspeople make their money and if you don't think that being in congress is a good way to make lots of money right now I don't know what to tell you
- lesuorac 1y ago> This is like the CEOs who "only get paid $1" We're so obviously talking about total compensation. CEOs making $1 while getting billions in stock appreciation or literally hundreds of millions in stock grants are not making $1/year by any reasonable definition. > f you don't think that being in congress is a good way to make lots of money right now I don't know what to tell you So, you want to keep the status quo where the people who are correctly compensated for their role are the ones willing to front-run their own citizens? (And also spending their time front-running instead of their elected job?)
- sumeno 1y ago> So, you want to keep the status quo where the people who are correctly compensated for their role are the ones willing to front-run their own citizens? (And also spending their time front-running instead of their elected job? No, those are actually entirely different words than what I have said.
- packetlost 1y agoThe point is reducing that reliance on side channels, including the topical ban on trading.
- throwaway0123_5 1y agoYeah $150k in DC is comfortable but far from luxurious (if you have a family, which it seems like most congresspeople do). It would not be enough to incentivize me to do the job of a congressperson.
- ungreased0675 1y agoAlso consider the need to maintain a home back in their home districts.
- sumeno 1y agoMark Zuckerberg's salary is only $1 a year! He must be homeless given bay area housing prices!
- throwaway0123_5 1y agoRight, I get that they make most of their money from sources other than their salary. But that seems like something we should aim to discourage, as it is pretty ripe for abuse. It is clear that many of them trade on non-public information, and for those that own businesses there's a lot of incentive to push legislation that helps the business. So if we were to ban most of that and have them live just on their salaries, I think the salaries should be higher given the challenges/responsibility of the job and the area they're living in.
- bdcravens 1y agoMost are well-educated and "qualified"; integrity and ethics are the bigger problems.
- lo_zamoyski 1y agoI submit that most people with college degrees, including those in politics, do not meet the bare minimum standard of what it means to be truly educated.
- hollerith 1y agoThe current pay for members of the House of Representatives and Senate is $174,000 per year [1] Rayiner is claiming we would get better members if we raise it to $1 million per year, to which your reply is unresponsive. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaries_of_members_of_the_United_States_Congress#Leadership_and_other_positions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaries_of_members_of_the_Uni...
- sumeno 1y ago$174k is not an accurate representation of the wealth accumulated from being a member of congress.
- digitalPhonix 1y agoThat’s the point. They’re making money from side channels. The idea is that if you pay them $1M, they won’t do their side channel earnings (and therefore reduce their potential conflicts of interest)
- verzali 1y agoTrump has far more than that, but he still seems willing to abuse the office to make himself even richer.
- scoofy 1y agoThis idea seems straightforward me, but I'm a huge nerd, and every time I try to explain it to normal people they're so offended by the idea that they talk to me like I'm crazy.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoDo you notice a trend of rich people becoming disinterested in amassing further riches? They just hire someone to do their trading for them and buy an island to go along with their yacht.
- kcplate 1y ago
- RickJWagner 1y agoAOC and MGT would suggest high pay is not a sufficient gate.
- atmavatar 1y agoI may not agree with her politics, but from what I can tell, AOC is intelligent, articulate, more than willing to inform herself about an issue before voting on or having a hearing about it, and most importantly, she appears to genuinely wish to represent her constituents to the best of her ability. I would happily clear and re-populate both parties with candidates sharing those traits. MTG, on the other hand, is and always has been an internet troll, and not even a high-quality troll - merely a ball of ignorance and bigotry that comes a dime a dozen in any competitive online game lobby or forum.
- rayiner 1y agoThey’re both ignorant and represent similarly low information districts.
- RickJWagner 1y agoA few examples of AOC’s reasons for proper comparison to MGT. Personally, to these I would add acts of drama like the emotional breakdown at the border, modeling the expensive ‘Tax the rich’ dress, etc. Google can bring many more examples. AOC is not more intelligent than MGT. They are two sides of the same coin. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/1857375/three-gaffes-in-one-week-aoc-cant-stop-exposing-her-own-ignorance/ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/1857375/three-gaf... https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-facts https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/politics/alexandria-ocasio-co... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/10/30/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-mocked-over-poster-for-arab-voters/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/10/30/alexandri...
- xnx 1y agoWhat is the AOC equivalent of MGT believing that California wildfires were started by Jewish space lasers to clear land for high speed rail?
- walls 1y agoJust look at how great all the CEOs getting tens of millions of dollars are doing. This is nothing but wishful thinking at best, and appeal to wealth at worst.