I understand this, but at the same time the concept of this to me is absolutely wild.
We see this in the UK, the exact same argument. Yet I was paid more to manage a small tech team than an MP for fewer hours. You actively disincentivise people like me from taking public positions. I'm doing tech contracting and earn more than Prime Minister.
The UK gets about a trillion dollars a year in, and spends more. The US takes in something like five trillion dollars.
An exceptionally small improvement in improving the economy pays for itself indefinitely because these countries are absolutely enormous. Our MPs are paid about 90k/year, if you could improve the tax take of the government by 0.1% by improving the economy in some way *once* you could pay them £1M/year *tax free* and you could pay that *forever* even if future people aren't as good they're just not actively detrimental. This is also for paying people who aren't actually making big decisions, just the elected representatives.
Money should not be an issue, missing a good person because of the money is utter insanity given the payback.
"For the money" is a weird way of framing it. I wouldn't run for Congress "for the money", but I would need the job to pay me enough to keep living where I'm living (when I'm not in DC) and cover my needs, with the ability to contribute to my savings as well... which it wouldn't, at current levels.
Because the most capable among us are able to command high salaries regardless of whether they're 'in it for the money'. Congress needs to be competitive with industry for the best talent.
Also, giving politicians legitimate income makes them less susceptible to bribery and other forms of unethical income.
This is so naive. No amount of money could force me to work for a company I didn't agree with morally, if I am able to "command" a higher salary I can command it elsewhere. And less susceptible to bribery? I can guarantee you that someone bringing in ~ $200k a year doesn't need to be looking for other sources of income. What do they tell poor people? Stop buying starbucks? Pull yourself up by the bootstraps! Shame they'd have to live a less lavish lifestyle as a public servant :( So at this point we should have to beg people and incentivize them with astronomical salaries to not be a piece of shit? I think this is just the product of late stage capitalism. Nobody gives a fuck about anything besides money and how to get more of it.
Lmao. $200k a year doesn't even get you a nice 1 bedroom apartment in many of the cities these representatives represent. Let alone pay for the 2 separate residences that they effectively need to maintain.
And you are arguing against strawmen. Please point to an example of two of current Congress reps telling poor people "Stop buying starbucks? Pull yourself up by the bootstraps!"
> So at this point we should have to beg people and incentivize them with astronomical salaries to not be a piece of shit? I think this is just the product of late stage capitalism. Nobody gives a fuck about anything besides money and how to get more of it.
This is the deeply naive view. It is not begging to pay market rate for top talent. The most capable people who we should want to run our government are worth far, far more on the open market than the current salary levels we pay Congress. If we want those people to consider Congress a viable option, we need to pay them accordingly. See Singapore for a strong example of this.
> $200k a year doesn't even get you a nice 1 bedroom apartment in many of the cities these representatives represent.
This is getting a little bit ridiculous. Manhattan is surely the most expensive housing market per square meter in the United States. You can get a nice 1 bedroom for about 5,000 USD per month. That is 60K USD per year. That is only 30% of their salary.
> Let alone pay for the 2 separate residences that they effectively need to maintain.
Their second place of residence while in Washington D.C.: That is paid for by the US gov't.
We see this in the UK, the exact same argument. Yet I was paid more to manage a small tech team than an MP for fewer hours. You actively disincentivise people like me from taking public positions. I'm doing tech contracting and earn more than Prime Minister.
The UK gets about a trillion dollars a year in, and spends more. The US takes in something like five trillion dollars.
An exceptionally small improvement in improving the economy pays for itself indefinitely because these countries are absolutely enormous. Our MPs are paid about 90k/year, if you could improve the tax take of the government by 0.1% by improving the economy in some way *once* you could pay them £1M/year *tax free* and you could pay that *forever* even if future people aren't as good they're just not actively detrimental. This is also for paying people who aren't actually making big decisions, just the elected representatives.
Money should not be an issue, missing a good person because of the money is utter insanity given the payback.