Though I am not opposed to pay being commensurate with responsibilities, I seriously doubt pay raises will solve the problem. It may help in some situations, and perhaps that is enough. But we have plenty of examples of very wealthy individuals who can’t seem to get enough of whatever it is that they are missing and replacing that with money, power, etc. I’m sorry, but I think in most of these well-publicized cases, the issue is something else that is missing, not a raise in pay.
No doubt that guys like Blagojevich are screwed up and a pay raise isn’t going to help that. But if government guys actually made a decent living there wouldn’t be as many Blagojevich’s in office.
When they started up homeland security they came to my company looking for people to jump into some of the top positions. They wanted to pay our senior software engineers 100K. That’s a joke. I don’t think one guy took it. If they want good people they have to pay for it, not throw you a biscuit and hope you salute the flag.
Al,
I’ll give you partially irrelevant. I was thinking more along the lines of “Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. I just don’t think it will solve the problem, only help (as I think I said). But good point about having a better pool to choose from improving the odds, especially in the case of non-elected positions. In the case of an elected official, I’m just not sure that is the primary driving reason for running. Maybe I’m just too jaded now
What you are suggesting is what is followed in the Republic of Singapore – the Govt ministers in that country draw the highest salaries in the world so that they remain honest
Though I am not opposed to pay being commensurate with responsibilities, I seriously doubt pay raises will solve the problem. It may help in some situations, and perhaps that is enough. But we have plenty of examples of very wealthy individuals who can’t seem to get enough of whatever it is that they are missing and replacing that with money, power, etc. I’m sorry, but I think in most of these well-publicized cases, the issue is something else that is missing, not a raise in pay.
Stu,
What you say is both correct and irrelevant.
No doubt that guys like Blagojevich are screwed up and a pay raise isn’t going to help that. But if government guys actually made a decent living there wouldn’t be as many Blagojevich’s in office.
When they started up homeland security they came to my company looking for people to jump into some of the top positions. They wanted to pay our senior software engineers 100K. That’s a joke. I don’t think one guy took it. If they want good people they have to pay for it, not throw you a biscuit and hope you salute the flag.
Al,
I’ll give you partially irrelevant. I was thinking more along the lines of “Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”. I just don’t think it will solve the problem, only help (as I think I said). But good point about having a better pool to choose from improving the odds, especially in the case of non-elected positions. In the case of an elected official, I’m just not sure that is the primary driving reason for running. Maybe I’m just too jaded now
What you are suggesting is what is followed in the Republic of Singapore – the Govt ministers in that country draw the highest salaries in the world so that they remain honest