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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 06 Jan 2024
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politics
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I have no type of economics experience, but what if representatives of a demographic of people should be paid the median wage of those people, with high punishment for corruption and bribes?
If they would like to earn more, they should lift their states's lowest wages. This goes down to all levels, a mayor of a city only earns the median wage of the city. It is a civil servant job after all, it shouldn't be glamorous.
This is a good idea in theory, but it doesn't really hold up when you look at what we ask reps to do.
They have to maintain two households, basically, and have a lot of travel expenses.
State legislatures are a great sandbox to review how pay impacts the folks who can afford to hold seats. Turns out, the less they're paid, the more likely they are to be independently wealthy. You will never "show them what it's like" to be poor by paying them less - you'll just ensure that actual normal people can't afford to take the position.
I think it was Maine that had a fully volunteer legislature? And had the richest legislature ever.
Ultimately, this is another problem of America trying to retain an agricultural mindset (part time legislature so that everyone could go home to farm), despite the world having changed.
So if they have to keep up two household, let them have two average incomes. It would still be less.
The average income in Alabama is 49K per year. The average cost of living in DC is 78k per year. Representatives need to have a home in their district while also working in DC.
The best outcome of your change would be to limit being a representative to someone already rich enough to not need their salary
If not, since your proposal heavily prevents corruption and bribes, you'd be forcing the Rep to work a second job or be homeless
Representatives don’t need to own a home in DC.
The president doesn’t own the White House, it comes with the position and goes to the next person elected after they serve their term.
There is no reason the state can’t own property in DC that comes with use during service.
But that sounds like communist public housing /s
That's actually not a bad idea in principal but would you want to live in a place after Matt Gaetz?