genius.

[radiumx]

From a random Reddit comment.

"No elected representative should make more than the mean income of their electoral district. It gives them an incentive to work harder for the interests of their constituents."

fucking. brilliant.

And now I leave for BSG.

Comments

[oizys]

while it's a nice gesture (it feels 'fair'), I'd prefer the polar opposite like in Ancient China. Where political office is one of the most respected and high caste jobs available, you train for 10-20 years so that you absolutely know what you're doing, and when and if you get there you're paid well enough that it's worth it.

As opposed to the system we have right now where anyone can be elected regardless of fitness for the position or even a fundamental understanding of how our system works (you have to take a test to be licensed to drive a forklift, or be a car mechanic, but you don't have to take a test to prove your ability to be a leader of the free world). In addition, our representatives are paid very low in comparison to the people the often work with (corporate lobbyists), which like all things near - things travel from areas of high concentration to low concentration - they're easier to bribe and pocket, and more likely to want to be friends with the lobbyists so they can do that when their term is up.

Granted there should be ceilings. Pre-Kennedy we had the top marginal tax rate at over 90%. Basically if you made more than 2 million a year, it started to taper off what you could continue to reasonable declare as earnings. So what did people do? Not take it as income - reinvest the money in the economy, their businesses, etc, instead of just sitting in their net worth doing nothing for society. They still had the assets, it just wasn't in take-home cash.