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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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We already overpay them and they already take bribes.
The problem is you don't pay them very much comparatively and so they take bribes and "gifts" to make up for the salary. Just look at Clarance Thomas. He said he needed a raise or he'd go full on corrupt. He did not get a raise. He went full corrupt.
Or we could, yknow, actually prosecute the corrupt ones. Likely a pipedream, but there is another option besides overpay them or allow blatant corruption.
Yeah. We can do what we do now. Overpay them and allow blatant corruption.
They do this no matter how much money we waste on them.
I hear your point, and it might be true, but it's only a hypothesis because, in the grand scheme of things, they aren't paid well relative to other work with significantly lower amounts of responsibility.
A young software developer working at Netflix or Amazon would be making more than them. A Congress person in a whole foods in silicon valley could very easily be the poorest customer in the store.
Scarface said "First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women". I believe that this is the American dream, at least in the eyes of people who end up in high government.
Their path is different though, power comes first, THEN the money, THEN the women. If we paid them at least enough to enable sexy affairs, I think they could round out the three without as much incentive to go full on corrupt
We could enlist a corp of hot young women from all over the world , and bring them to a private island ….
"We should pay these corrupt pieces of shit even more money, and maybe they'll stop taking bribes" is a hypothesis we've tested PLENTY of times. The results are conclusive: the people we put into office are overpaid at any price, and are corrupt no matter how much money we waste on them.
When has this hypothesis been tested in the USA?
Where are these conclusive results you speak of?
Every single time we gave them a raise.
They're still corrupt.
Removed for abelist language. Take that out and you're golden.
Yes we have. We keep increasing congress' pay like you want, and they keep taking bribes like you want.
If someone did a study on whether raising the minimum wage impacts people's quality of life, raised it a penny, found that people were still in poverty, and said "we should give up on minimum wages," would that convince you? Your statement, that we've raised congressional wages and corruption is still present, is an equivalent argument. No one is arguing that giving politicians any raise will completely eliminate corruption. I would argue that we should give members of congress wages comparable to the amount of money they would get from taking bribes, and the result will be reduced, not eliminated, corruption.
Comparing someone who makes 6 figures to someone who makes minimum wage is insulting to the latter.
Particularly since the former is responsible for keeping the latter's wages stagnant while whining about how he's not compensated enough for doing so.
You're right. The point I was making was that congressional members are like people with minimum wage. Your response is definitely not dodging my argument.
The point you were making is that congressturds aren't rich enough and that we should just spam money at them and that will magically make them less corrupt. Bringing up minimum wage workers who haven't seen a raise in decades in that context is utterly disgusting.
That's not the point I was making, and bringing that up isn't disgusting.