If you underpay elected officials then 1. they just start taking bribes 2. only rich people will run in the election.

This is why Singapore pays them even more than we do.

Anyway, minimum wages (despite being ok policies) aren't what people are actually paid, and of course aren't especially what non-working people are paid. And remember that non-working people, namely children and the elderly, are poorer than workers.

That literally is already what's happening. Bribing officials through lobbying is legal, and only rich people can afford to take on the instability of an election run.

And idk where you got the idea that people don't make minimum wage. They absolutely do. Go look at a job board.

THEY ALREADY DO

Nobody said the multiple has to be 5. It could be whatever the current ratio for Singapore is.

They don't, but the important point is:

> 2. only rich people will run in the election.

Which is not true unless you think AOC is rich. It's not unheard of that congresspeople sleep in their office i.e. are homeless because DC rent is high.

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141635119/the-first-gen-z-me...

> congresspeople sleep in their office i.e. are homeless because DC rent is high

any source for this? your link just mentions a representative who has bad credit, it never claims he is homeless.

It's in the second half of the article.

> Dozens of members of Congress have even turned their Capitol Hill offices into their makeshift apartments.

https://nypost.com/2018/05/01/these-politicians-are-sleeping...

Of course, sometimes they're just weird and like it. Mitt Romney lives in a small apartment and only watches TV for fun and he's a multimillionaire.

I am always suprised at how people think that elected official then have to get bribes in order to survive like its a doctor prescription, and how it seems that when they do we can’t do anything about it ffs

They mostly don't, people just like being cynical.

Though, legislators don't have individual power to take action to be worth giving specific bribes to; what may happen is that if someone is friendly to your business, you want to keep them motivated to keep re-running for Congress and do the awful annoying job of being a legislator, when they could instead quit and go back to industry or retire on the beach or whatever.

Just look at most countries around the world.

Corrupt elected officials is more of the norm, than the anomaly world-wide.

It's like selling your data to ad tech companies. They'll do it no matter how much you pay for the product.

America's GDP allocated per congressperson is like $50 billion each.

Salaries wont fix bribes for someone with that much to command and even the already rich can make a lot of money getting into politics. Their salary means nothing to them.

You need to pay congressmen enough money so they can have upper middle class lifestyle - without that pressure to take bribes is dramatically higher. You have nice 5bdrm house in good school district and enough money for nice vacation + savings? Refusing bribes is easy - you are comfortable. Kids are taken care of. Wife does not have to work. This lifestyle requires 300-600k in DC.

You live in shitty 2bdrm apartment with wife and two kids in poor school district? With no savings and vacation? Your life is hell and you are that much more likely to take bribes.

It’s all about incentives.

What happens when they want more? That upper middle class salary won’t be enough anymore and they’ll seek bribes.

Is there an actual source for this logic? Not a huge fan of arguments-via-intuition.

GDP per Congressman is a new statistic

We should have about 1000 representatives by now but I think they just didn’t want to retrofit congressional buildings to do it. Of course that would still be 20 billion per congresscritter.

But GDP is a bit misleading. A lot of it is financial services lately. It’s not real goods or services.

Congress already makes more money from cutting deals with their power & influence than they do from their salary...

Yes that should be illegal too.

People in congress are millionaires, and it's not from congressional salaries. It's due to it being somehow legal for them to insider trade, and bribes in other guises.

100% agree.

Serving in public choice should for duty, not a career.

Make a fixed salary. If you dont like it, get a job elsewhere just like everyone else.

And oh, you wont get qualified candidates - nonsense. We had a movie actor, a silver spoon heir, a community organizer, a real estate broker and a lifelong politician as presidents.

There's nothing in technical expertise that they have in common. They were just good orators with some charistma and a penchant to lie with a smile...on their face.

Oh, you are worried of a bribe? Good thing we have FEC disclosure forms etc. Make them audited every year. Have more bite. Increase sentences. Put bounties on whistleblowing. Then sit back and relax

> suggested that Congressional salaries be a fixed multiple of minimum wage

That's insane no matter how you look at it.

Minimum wage is paid by individuals, private businesses and their owners. Congressional pay is paid for with your money - an effective infinite of your money, or they'll just poof new money out of nowhere to continue to pay themselves.

Correlating the two is plain wrong.

Why do you think it matters where the money comes from?

Congress is responsible for raising the minimum wage. That’s the connection.