He’s not alone: AOC and others have argued lawmakers should be paid more in order to protect against corruption and make the job more accessible.

    • @TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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      2210 months ago

      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.

      • Alto
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        1810 months ago

        Or we could, yknow, actually prosecute the corrupt ones. Likely a pipedream, but there is another option besides overpay them or allow blatant corruption.

        • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          510 months ago

          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.

      • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        1010 months ago

        The problem is you don’t pay them very much comparatively and so they take bribes and “gifts” to make up for the salary.

        They do this no matter how much money we waste on them.

        • @Windex007@lemmy.world
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          810 months ago

          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

          • @Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            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.

            “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.

          • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            We could enlist a corp of hot young women from all over the world , and bring them to a private island ….