It's low for people who control trillions of dollars in yearly government spending, and who indirectly decide the fate of trillions more in private spending. $

It's low for people who control trillions of dollars in yearly government spending, and who indirectly decide the fate of trillions more in private spending. $174k being "comfortable" is a misdirection: it should be, "what is the market rate to get someone who can reasonably handle trillions of dollars without corruption and for the benefit of their constituents?" And the answer is apparently higher than $174k per year, because many of these people go on to million dollar appointments in the private sector afterward. See also, for example, Singapore, known for fairly low corruption, who pays government heads over $1M per year.