Soldier's pay (enlisted) (E-4 with 3 years service) - $25,128*Average American worker's pay (Note: these are the employers of government workers) - $50,462
Average pay of government employees - $74,403 (not really begrudging them that, btw.)
Base pay before extras for congressmen and senators (the public servants of the American workers) - $174,000
*They also get free food and free ammunition.
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A motion: "Congress shall never make a higher salary than the people who are standing on the front lines taking bullets."
What do you say? Are are military families the only ones who are expected to sacrifice for their country?
Motion #2: If congress declares or allows war, their children must withdraw from university and go to the front lines with the poor people's sons and daughters. Better yet, every 4th congressperson, by lot, shall serve on the battlefield in some capacity as well.
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The constitution says congress gets to set their own compensation. The constitution was written on the erroneous assumption they were dealing with honorable men more or less. It used to be that every time congress voted to increase their salaries, there was a big stink from their employers back home. It made them look bad to slap on another 10 grand a year when so many of their employers were making only a fraction of their congressman's OLD salary. So congress, I'm told, got a bright idea and passed a law which increased their salaries AUTOMATICALLY every 3 months, without having to have a public vote. Ok, not every 3 months. Not quite. So, they DO have workable thought processes, even if devious.
Why can't I do that too?
Crap.
Agreed on all counts. I think that's a fine idea.
ReplyDeleteOur Congress has established itself as something forbidden by our Constitution --- an Aristocracy.
ReplyDeleteThey can make laws for us "ordinary" citizens, while exempting themselves from those laws.
I'd like to start with the requirement that any increase in pay for the Legislative branch be approved in a plebicite at the next congressional election.
Wow! Parliamentarians making good while others suffer? Who would have thought....?
ReplyDeleteAren't you doing the pigs a disservice by using them as an illustration?
ReplyDeleteI like it when people agree with me. I think I will just keep it simple from now on.
ReplyDeleteI wished I made that much..Like your idea about congress, maybe they should only get paid when everyone's employed, and the budgets balanced. Until them give them a cot and a meal.
ReplyDeleteMaybe then they'd stop bickering..
Take money making out of our government... maybe then we will have people who want to sever for the greater good of man, rather than to get rich and powerful.
ReplyDeleteLove it.
Back in 1755, Dr. Samuel Johnson published his great dictionary of the English language.
ReplyDeleteIt was the first really comprehensive attempt to produce such a thing, and Johnson's definitions, or, as he calls them 'explanations', are a delight to read.
For "Excise" he says "excise:a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid."
And "Pension: an allowance made to any one without an equivalent.In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country."
250 years later, the same still holds true.
Ironically, those same people against whom Johnson directed the sharp edge of his wit, afforded him a lifetime pension, in recognition of his work. The good doctor promptly bristled, demanded to know for what purpose he was being bought.
He was assred that the pension came with no strings attached, it was not to ensure his plaudits in the future, it was in recognition of his work already published, the dictionary.
I'm looking forward to the days Issac Asimov prediced when highly moral and public service minded robotos run the government.
ReplyDeleteGreg: Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your visit!
ReplyDeleteJeff: I don't say they shouldn't be paid at all. Just less than important people like soldiers. Heck, I would pay them to stay home. :)
Soubriquet: I love that dictionary! I don't suppose I can get my hands on a copy. Dr. Johnson sounds even more harsh than me. :)
Descartes: That would be a welcome switch. I have a book by Asimov that consists of nothing but about 250 pages of facts that he had collected and found interesting. I still dig it out and reread it.
And thank you, Ozandreamer, for your visit here as well. I think what you say is very true.
ReplyDelete