Politicians will be happy to take bribes regardless of what they earn.

As an intermediate solution, you can define it as X times the median or the minimum legal wage, so they still have incentive to raise them.

I know you are right, that is what they claim. Having said that, 25 years of naked corruption should be enough, even for Americans, to realize they have been lied to

Or even if you take the bribery angle out of it, the less politicians earn, the less it incentivizes working class people from going into government because they need the money. The net result is you end up ruled by the wealthy (including those who will advocate for pay decreases for congresspeople, which just worsens the problem).

Also low compensation makes it nearly impossible for the average person to run an office, live in DC, and maintain a home in their home district.

I'd be okay if they recieved some kind of voucher or stipend that can only be used on a lease in DC and office necessities. Just to make up the difference

Or that you just make politics into something only for the independently wealthy. This is especially true at the state and local level where positions are often part time. The result is often those with the power to make their own schedules (landlords, lawyers, trust fund kids, etc.) make up a disproportionate amount of elected officials. You'll get some people who are passionate enough to give up the rest of their lives, but not enough.

But the usual rational response is, if what they earn is never enough for the blind pursuit of more, than they will always, "make less" in their minds and justify abuse of their positions.

This city needs an enema...

The biggest argument against it is they need to maintain 2 residences and travel back and forth from their district to DC. If they're not paid enough to do that, only the wealthy and corrupt could ever be in congress.

Yeah, but they're already being bribed at this point.

The solution?

Prison for bribes. No parole. Enforce it.

My argument is, what am I supposed to be entertained by, if the number of USian political posts is brought down to zero?

That's what the FBI and clearance is for

I get that you're trying to be accurate, and I respect that.

Let's use the mean, and eliminate the top and bottom 1% of earners. Which would put Congress' salary between 57,000 and 61,000

Using the median gives them a salary of 87,500 dollars.

That top 1% is a real motherfucker.

They can get paid median salary whilst getting stipends for travel, congressional office, and DC housing.

I have always thought it should be twice the average median income of the state they represent.

But you bring up much larger issues. There are so many bars to running for office that make it so much easier for capital holders. I say people who hold capital should be barred from public office. I will leave the exact definition of "holding capital" up to the reader.

Always fascinates me that the knee jerk solution to 'government service sucks' is 'pay the service providers less.'

Congresspeople are not the service providers. The various agencies are the service providers. Congress controls the pay to those providers.

Nobody here has asked for the service providers to take a pay cut. OP is asking for Congress to take a pay cut until the service providers under their control are providing a higher level of service.

Congress's report card is the well-being of the public. In the subject of "Financial Wellness", their grade is "$66,621".

They aren't being asked for a pay cut. When they improve their grade to "$174,000", they will be entitled to their current pay. When they raise it to "$250,000", they will be entitled to a substantial raise. It's only a pay cut if they insist on causing harm.

Does this not incentivise them to prop up the overpayed class of management so they can point to is as a comparable?

This is where the real money is, and this is the real source of corruption; their salary is not the problem. In fact, I think the salary should be high enough that normal people will still be interested in the difficult and ugly game of politics. I wouldn't run for office for less money than I make at my job - I have bills to pay.

I think they should be barred altogether from making stock trades while in office. Maybe their portfolios could go into a blind trusts (or index funds or something) so that they cannot make insider trades. Likewise for their partners and close family.

Manipulating the stock market is the principal motivation behind Trump's trade and foreign policy. The same can probably be said about many Democrat and Republican congresspeople. Allowing this obscenity is the single greatest weakness of the American political system.

Not allow them to take a position with any company that may have been affected by a vote they cast.

I don't agree with max terms, mainly because good leaders are fucking rare and if they want to keep going, it's to everyone's benefit. Plus, as Trump is showing, when the really bad ones come along, they'll challenge the maximum rules anyways and not give a shit about the optics like a good faith leader that feels like they need to answer to their population.

Though maybe each leadership term should end with a trial of some sort, though it would be difficult or impossible to be sure that those trials would be run in good faith rather than the ruling class taking it over to punish leaders that hurt them for the sake of the people.

Representatives need a salary, otherwise only those that are independently wealthy can hold office.

I'm with you on this idea for campaign financing though

What's interesting is that a candidate could rent, lease, or buy a Lamborghini as part of their campaign. That's perfectly legal!

The restriction is that they can only use that vehicle for traveling to/from campaign events. Since this is highly impractical and a waste of precious campaign funds, that doesn't usually happen.

Another interesting fact is that candidates can get reimbursement from their campaign funds for miles traveled in their personal vehicles (when campaigning).

Sadly this is a very solid point. This would probably lead even stronger to the tendency that billionaires could simply bjy representatives/senators.

So deadass that's what I'm actually doing right now lol. Running for office cause it'd get me more money and time off, and well, I care about it anyways. Not congress tho, local type shit

dont you mean below average intelligence. they appeal to who ever makes up the most in a district, like rich people in schumers area.

One of the reasons a lot of government positions track if you have debts is that propensity to financial burdens make politicians more suceptible to corruption.

If you pay them less, they are actually going to be more easily bribed.

I’d agree with you except we see politicians selling out for even tiny amounts while having tens of millions in the bank. If you’re willing to sell the food out of the mouths of the poor for $2,500 and you’ve got 12 mil in the bank your inherently corrupt and having a big paycheck won’t change that. They have billionaire brain rot, number go up syndrome, as long as number goes up that’s all that matters no matter how much they are given or have.

Live in Missouri. Our state legislature liked to for years vote down a pay raise for themselves. They made sure to stand up and wave "Look at how good we're doing."

If I wanted to run for legislature, I would have had to taken a cut in pay and I am definitely not on the top 50% of the state, much less the country.

I think it is much more important what they are using that skill for.

In theory if we tied the salary of congress to the minimum wage the minimum wage would go up.

In practice the income of a congressperson is tied to their morality. Not their salary.

"y’all know that Congress doesn’t control things like private pensions, 401Ks, or average wages, right?"

This is wrong on so many levels. Let's start with this: Who made pensions and regulates them? Hmmmmmm

Private pensions is in fact something that has frequently been legislated on

And getting paid $250k for being a "guest speaker" sonewhere when it's really just a bribe. Even if congress weren't paid any salary they would still make bank from other sources of revenue.

Its like how DJT took a "$1 presidential salary" or whatever but has made billions doing other things.

If how laws are written isn't the actual source of these problems, please enlighten me on what is?

Alternatively: tie the minimum wage to inflation. Some US states do this.

Yes, but a competency test is essential. 50% of the population are below average intelligence.

What responsibilities? Most people just assume there are responsibilities and consequences, turns are out there isn't. The newest episode of Some More News is about exactly this.