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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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politics
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In fact, it is dangerous to pay politicians too little. When a person has power but the pay is too little, that person has a strong incentive to make up the difference through corruption.
In the Roman Republic, it was understood that officials needed to line their pockets as much and as quickly as possible during their limited time in office. This is why term limits are also bad when combined with low pay.
Or we could try more strict anti-corruption checks and balances with real, tangible consequences.
Yes that is how you get to modern US pre-Trump. There's still corruption, it's more hidden, and managed enough that the less marginalized middle/upper class have relative safety/stability. Compare that to the other large economies, it was doing retty well for its size, and certainly much better than centuries past.
@Soleos @Phil_in_here It was weird when Joe won. I saw a shadow govt going on (the maggot mafia) while Joe and dems won ... No clue what the shadow govt was doing but continuing the coup they all started.
That's not a shadow government, that's just government. They weren't even trying to be subtle about it.
Good thing then Americans voted for an incorruptible billionaire for president.
Sorry for the snark. It's of course accurate that it's easier to bribe people when they make little money through honest means.
I feel that's more a lack of accountability problem than low pay problem.
It's both.
I used to be close family friends with a man who is now a Congressman. He was my air conditioning repairman when I was little, and when he moved to DC without the wealth many other politicians had, he had a hard time paying for things like having houses in DC and back in the district.
He ended up doing little favors here and there to help pay rent, and it was a slippery slope to him becoming super corrupt.
We no longer speak.
There should just be housing in DC for these people. Little apartments to stay at.
Something like that might be necessary if we ever get a chance to uncap the house.