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Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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politics
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Under paying is a good way to make sure that the only people who run for office have financial incentives outside of the salary. Ie: it makes corruption and insider trading more likely.
I would say we should pay them enough to have a solidly comfortable upper middle class lifestyle in perpetuity, and force them to relinquish all prior assets and holdings beside their family home/vehicles. Ideally, these would be highly respected community members and making the comfortable would be commendable. However, they should not be able to leverage their position for personal gain. That should be true after their tenure as well. They should be given a sizeable pension, but any earning related to their office should be forfeit to an approved non-profit. That means speaking engagements and book deals should not be a source of income.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be paid well, just that the multiplier should be 1. There's another number that could be adjusted upward.
It'd be perfectly acceptable for an employer to pay minimum wage if minimum wage wasn't some insultingly low number based on a fantasy land where self-pulling bootstraps grow on trees.