"Has no one ever noticed how poorly the leadership of our democracies are treated?" No, I haven't noticed this (because it's not true). What I do notice are m

"Has no one ever noticed how poorly the leadership of our democracies are treated?" No, I haven't noticed this (because it's not true). What I do notice are many stories about politicians abusing their positions, almost systematically [1,2]. I see no reason why a higher rate of pay would curb such behaviour (it's not like they're broke in the first place). I don't see why leaders of the commercial sector should be considered the "best of the best" either (think back to banking and other corporate scandals of the last decade). In addition, the gap between CEO pay and 'normal' people has been the subject of debate before. When you realise that some of these folks sit on each-other's compensation committees it's easy to see how such arrangements can be abused -- and conveniently justified in hindsight as 'necessary' to "attract and retain the best of best". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_parliamentary_expenses_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_parliamentary_e... [2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jun/02/lobbying-ministers-scandals http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jun/02/lobbying-mini...