This is that book I mentioned:
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Turn off Bluetooth
Always find it incredibly tilting when people complain about politician salaries. It advertises the reasoning skills and emotional control of a six year old. It’s about the most simultaneously banal and dumbass take you can have.
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Thanks, this looks interesting.
Yeah… I find history to be very informative in this situation.
Once upon a time there was a gigantic state-corporation called the East India Company. It was in the business of conquering India for the English crown and then organizing the looting process. In its first 50-100 years pay for its management team was very meager but huge fortunes were there to be made through taking bribes and trading on ones own account. The saying was ‘the salary is worthless but the prerogatives are spectacular’. Later they boosted the salary dramatically but made conflicts of interest and bribery serious offenses that were at least somewhat well enforced… and made even more money as a result.
Our current crop of politicians are exactly like that first group of EIC admins. They get paid a shit salary (for needing a residence back home + one in Washington, and for the kind of person who can get into Congress pretty much period), but somehow they all end up millionaires.
We need to start paying the civil servants who actually made decisions a LOT more money. This isn’t just politicians but also higher level federal/state employees who decide things like who gets what contract. In exchange they need to be all but banned from working in the private sector for life after they leave their office. Which should be fine because they’ll make plenty of money in office.
The level of conflict of interest in modern politics is absolutely mind boggling and it has to stop. We have to figure out how to get these people’s incentives aligned with the country as a whole rather than the people who have the money and power to gain access and pay them off.
Tricky. In theory, I’d rather see public service as some sort of totally normal, accepted thing for regular people to do. I wouldn’t want regular people turning down public service because it would reduce their future job prospects. I suspect decisions would be better with more working-class experience in the halls of Congress.
In practice, obviously the working-class people aren’t the ones we’re talking about. It’s not the teacher who spends time in politics and returns to teaching that’s the problem, it’s the businessman who spends times in politics and returns as a lobbyist. Perhaps we could write some sort of law that encourages the former while eliminating the latter.
I’m only talking about people at higher level roles where they make decisions that would be worth lobbying over.
The revolving door is a big problem. In my system they wouldn’t be avoiding government service because it hurt their career prospects, they’d be running towards government service for the huge payday.
I’m talking 400-500k a year for mid tier 40-50 year old senior civil service types… with a sexy pension when they leave.
Yea, I think I’d agree with the last sentence. The higher executive-level positions that are not directly politically appointed (IIRC SES positions are Senate confirmed but not appointed? I think @Trolly knows the answer to this) actually have significant amounts of power and decision-making authority in most agencies AFAIK and don’t make nearly enough for it (DC-area SES salaries are in the mid-to-high 100s). These are individuals overseeing hundreds of employees and usually executing pretty complex missions.
Yup. That should be the last job where you get paid (and exactly as well as these people currently get paid including the post career bribes)… not the lobbying job for the industry you were regulating that you take after retirement.
I don’t care if Clint is total deplorable, he made some great fucking movies. I guess I’m a separate the artist from the art type. I think everyone is deplorable in one way or another. Just enjoy what good manages to spring forth.
Best case scenario, he’s an old school republican - libertarian type, who hasn’t had to examine the society he grew up in too closely.
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As opposed to douchebags like this. Fuck giving any of these fucks an iota
Yeah, and my man Andrew Yang is right that we actually need to pay our politicians a lot more, and then ban them from enriching themselves after they leave office. I think Glesias has a similar take.
has an awfully high standard to live up to
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/RevolvingImmediateArcticduck-mobile.mp4
The same people also love the idea of running the government like it’s a household budget, somehow unable to see that if that were the case you wouldn’t start with eliminating ~$10 million in Congressional salaries from the $4.4 trillion budget.
Also if I can get tens of thousands of dollars in unsecured personal loans every year at like 2% over 30 years shit man yeah give me all of that money. Fuck yeah.
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The website brags
It Looks So Real Your Liberal Relative
Will Freak Out When You Show Them
This “NEW US Currency”
Only $10 per bill, too, what a deal!
counterfeiting - we got him
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Because rich people are incorruptible.
Neither take on the politician salary is good. They should maybe get a modest raise. The staffers should get paid better. Government bureaucrats get paid pretty well. Maybe a little raise. Maybe more aggressive adjustment for expensive areas.
Super salary doesn’t mean less corruption and it doesn’t mean super geniuses.