That i wholeheartedly agree with. You should only rise to power for the service of your nation, nit for the ambition of wealth.
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The problem with that is if you want talent you need to pay them, otherwise they go into the private sector and the people you get stuck with are the ambitious idiots.
Not necessarily. There are loads of talented teachers, police officers, etc. that work for peanuts, yet do an excellent job. On the whole, though, I agree. If you want talent, you have to be willing to pay for it.
Anyway, this is all just wish-listing. Congress isn't going to vote themselves into minimum wage or force themselves to ride the Metro. However, there is hope for gay marriage, healthcare reform, and the environment. The Tea Party can't deny reality forever, and their mainstream Republican supporters will realize within the next few election cycles that they can't tow the extreme right line if they want to stay in office.
They are still paid considerably more than the minimum wage, though, and don't have the kind if responsibilities being in guvmint has. No offense to them intended.:) Plus you still get public schools that poach really good teachers from state schools. Not so much with police I'd imagine.
I agree that pay should reflect responsibility to a point. If we put Congress on minimum wage, very few people would run, unless they were allowed to make money from other sources. But then you'd have to regulate THAT as well, which would be just another headache. As it is, congress actually does work quite hard. While I don't agree with what some of them think, they put in long hours and spend lots of time away from their families. More than one has retired citing stress, fatigue, and a need to repair their family relationships.
The idea that private schools pay more than public schools is largely untrue. I've talked to some teachers I've known socially, and they say that while there are some private schools that pay a lot higher, on the whole it's about the same.
I'd be willing to bet that most of the "ambitious idiots" you're talking about actually genuinely believe that they're doing the right thing for the country. There is corruption, I'm sure, but the perception that ALL politicians are corrupt is too simple to be true. It's just as simplistic as saying that all poor people are lazy or all rich people are sociopaths. Reality is more complex than that.
I don't think there is any doubt our politicians are not corrupt. Some of them just have a rather detached view of reality.:rolleyes:
I think detached view of reality is somewhat charitable.
Really? I see every single MP as being bent as a nine bob note.... Utterly self serving, and in the pockets of either big business or the unions.
Sods the lot of them!
Anyways, back to dreams. I've not had any further recollection since the OP :p