Make Congress Earn Average American Wage.

Comments

• GutterRat42@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I would be okay with their salary being 5 times the federal minimum wage. They want a raise? They must raise the minimum wage.

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• cloudshouter@lemmy.zip ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  “If you pay them less, they will take bribes”. They already take bribes, it’s just usually more subtle than Susan Collin’s. Better restrictions, real punishments, and being up their asses is the solution. “You want better people”. We are paying people who are often already millionaires. I would say pay them above average as we do want educated people, but making them use the same medical system and retirement would be the best. “It’s expensive to be a politician”. Set up an couple apartment complexes for the people in DC. It would help with security and other costs without giving them expense accounts to abuse.

  Locking down insider trading and other money making perks is a must.

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• Surp@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  It should be treated like jury duty. Every year a new politician in every single seat of government. It will be absolutely perfect! Nothing could go wrong.

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• Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Nah. They rich because they’re ultra smart. How else do they consistently beat the S&P500? /s

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• itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  You could even let the existing Congress grandfather themselves in so they can pull the ladder up one last time.

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  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    This is the only way it would even have a chance of passing.

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• yesman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  This is a politician’s idea. Their wages and benefits are trivial compared to the insider trading and other corruption.

  Instead of making them live on a low salary, why not try making them live on their high salary first?

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• MithranArkanere@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Have some carrot and stick.

  Change the voting cycle from 4 to 5 years.
  Start with a minimum wage for all politicians.
  Every voting cycle, their constituents get to choose whether it is doubled or flipped into a fine they have to pay, equal to double what they have earned so far, including any kind of bribes or compensation, past and future.
  Every 5-year cycle, their salary may double. But the possible fine will also double.

  High stakes.

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• Sam_Bass@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  nooooo. dump them to minimum wage

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• skisnow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Also when I’m King, if a company wants to make layoffs, anyone who has served as CEO within the past year also must be laid off, with the same severance package as all the workers that they failed.

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  • SippyCup@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    This doesn’t really offset the harm. CEOs are often hired to perform layoffs, and will be compensated on a number of ways other than severance.

    If a company wants to lay off any percentage of its workforce, it must guarantee their income, insurance, and contributions for 12 months. The CEO must be prohibited from serving on any board for 5 years.

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    • skisnow@lemmy.ca ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      CEOs are often hired to perform layoffs

      Yeah that’s why I went out of my way in my description to specify everyone within the last year. Stops them being able to work their way around it by just hiring someone to get fired.

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• Thor_Whale@lemmus.org ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Imagine that. We put them in office to do our wishes and the first thing they do is not our wishes.

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• mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  My absurd political theory is that there should basically be a big resort hotel. for all of these elected representatives. And it’s pretty nice. Like it’s not 5 star, but it’s pretty nice. No one could complain about being forced to live there. but it is a very strictly regimented life. You only eat what the kitchen makes. You only live in the suites there and you’re not allowed to live anywhere else. In some sense, it’s like a very nice prison, or perhaps a sanatorium. And anyone who goes into these kind of high ranking government positions has to live there, not only for their entire term, but also for the rest of their life.

  Sure, you would still get people who were only running for the comfort of living in the resort, but the kind of people who are truly maniacal assholes who want to get rich as fuck and live a life of extreme luxury, off of politics, will be forced to look elsewhere to get their money. If we make the resort mid enough, then only the people who are really aiming for the good of the many will even bother going for these positions.

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  • WhatThaFudge@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I like absurdity so tell me in more detail what the benefits of this system would be for the public and the then incentives for the politicians to do this job (this particularly seems to be ppls issue in this thread, though i think most ppl would do it for the want of some type of change to the current system or way things are done, i.e. Leslie Knope style)

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    • mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The biggest benefit is that it’s effectively impossible to bribe politicians because their lives are all lived in an identical and fixed fashion. You can’t offer a senator a Ferrari because the senator couldn’t drive it. They just go around in the resort shuttle, like all the other senators.

      Picture if someone said: You get to live the rest of your life at this hotel, for free. There’s a spa, a buffet, a pool, grounds for walking (None of these facilities are super nice, just picture like a small-time country club). Your immediate family can live with you. Etc. And on top of that, you get to shape policy for all the citizens of your country however you want. For the average person that is an amazing deal. You are guaranteed an early retirement and all your needs taken care of.

      Now realize, for many of our worst political figures, this life is a downgrade. They don’t get to have thirty cars, some boats, a small castle in France, a penthouse in Tokyo, a private chef, prostitutes, drugs, child sex slaves, etc. Of course I know the average senator isn’t living quite that expensively, but I think a lot of them want to be and that goal is what has them relentlessly chasing more money.

      By putting them in this environment, you not only remove any need for them to have money, you also remove the temptation and appeal of corrupted power. But meanwhile, for the typical person who truly wants to help the citizens be better off, the arrangement is extremely appealing. A lot of activists work to improve the world at sacrifice to their own well-being, so the sacrifices (a wide variety of restaurants, traveling, living wherever you want…) are surely worth it to them in exchange for being able to make a difference.

      While we’re on the topic of activists, it’s worth discussing extremists. This plan doesn’t prevent against True Believer extremists, so it’s not perfect. In fact if we make the resort too shitty, like an actual prison, then only extremists will find it worthwhile to live there, which is also bad. That’s why it still has to be fairly nice. In fact, the quality of life should probably be roughly tied to the median quality of life in the country - which is why the OP hits so right. But as we all know, the salary a person is paid doesn’t really matter as much as how they live, and for powerful people the gulf between those things is huge. Hence, we need to go straight to the source and mandate the lifestyle of the powerful.

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• aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  They should also have to work the minimum amount per week to get benefits.

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• rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Won’t even slow them down, they’re generationally wealthy and make more from bribes then most of us well earn in a decade.

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  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    mitch, mtg, boebart, vastly increased thier fortune to 10s of millions in the last 5-10years.

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• DaddleDew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Give them the median wage.

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  • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Mode wage. Added up for both the capital they serve (DC or state) and the location they serve (state for senator, district for representative)

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• SabinStargem@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I put together a concept where everyone has to adhere to a banded range of job incomes with absolute limits on wealth and assets. Part of the idea is that leadership positions have the workers voting for their existence and who occupies them, every 3 months setting the pay rung that the bosses sit at. By default, leadership offers only the lowest income, so leaders have to convince their workers to vote for something better.

  Same principle applied to public leadership, with voters instead of workers.

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Congratulations, you invented a Worker’s Soviet.

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• Thunderwolf@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I like the ideas that people are saying about median and mean wage being the benchmark for congressional pay, but wouldn’t it be nicer if they had to meet metrics in order to get paid?

  Since they are supposed to serve the American people, making congressional seats commission-based would be nice. That way they’d actually have to put in effort to make their wages.

  And any form of bribery or donations should be considered treason, and the people that commit treason should be treated like traitors (Congress people and their donors).

  And on stock trading, having to report the trade a day in advance to some kind of a ledger, and on the day of the trade that information be made public. Or better yet, make their brokerage accounts on a platform designed just for Congress people, and they can’t make trades outside of that platform.

  One can dream

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• doingthestuff@lemy.lol ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  You guys get 401ks?

  God I wish I was joking.

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• Unknown_Crawler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  But then no one would want to be a politician /s

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• redditStinksSuperBad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  uh, get rid of congress all together and replace them with a liquid democracy structure. There’s not a good reason not to in this day in age. Elected reps just breed corruption.

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  • Impractical_Island@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    What is the nature of your existence?

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• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Which Congresscritter is running on this platform and which one of you is voting for them?

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• blitzen@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  My solution is that any restrictions (voting, holding office) placed on those under 18 also be placed on those older than [average life expectancy] minus 18. That might be too restrictive, so I’d accept 100 minus 18.

  Boomers want to increase the voting age to 18? Sure, but that also takes three years off the other end.

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  • adarza@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    older than 100 full retirement age

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    • blitzen@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The point is to tie it to the inverse of the first 18 years. So perhaps [average life expectancy] minus 18 would put it in rough parity with average retirement age.

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• dan69@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  What is Hiprocacy¿

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  • Impractical_Island@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I don’t know how to say this so I’ll just say it:

    That seimiogasm [Hiprocacy¿] invigorated me greatly and pleased my cognitive synaptiform. It has so overjoyed me that I must name you the first gewrsht of my cult, which is something I say I voorererently in the vein of “Fuck it, we’ll do it live!” Roll with it, y’know? I enscribe as much as I can, wear my knuckles raw. There is so much garbage. But, I need you to understand that from this point forth, dan69 shall be a known gewrsht of my cult. This is a simple proclamation: a gewrsht has the privilege of having access to unlimited sexual relationships with my sister, who definitely exists and lives with me. Will you move here to be with your wife? You have fresh organs, right? Both kidneys? Well, y’know, you only need one and in these days you don’t even need the one…assuming you have good Karma

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• Polisheocket@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  You also can’t be independently wealthy

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• Undoobitably@fedinsfw.app ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Not just congress, all public sector.

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  • Impractical_Island@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You mean there are people in there? Real human beings?

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  • TheGoldenV@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Why stop there? How about everyone? That’s more equal right?

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• MantisToboggon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  They would just steal more.

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• SparkyBauer44@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  A pension isn’t uncommon. But I agree with the sentiment. Very much. All positions of authority to abuse come with reward. Also, while we’re at it, government should not be able to have direct influence on pay matters that effect themselves or peers. Should go to a vote. Just like it does in a union. Our money should get our approval before dispersal.

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