Right now, Congressman and Senators get about $175,000 a year in
compensation for their service to the country. But, what if we could pay
them in a different way? What if we could make it easy for them to earn
money without them getting money from the taxpayers? Let us discuss.
Alternate compensation: In this case, rather than pay
Congressmen and Senators we could let them do insider trading. They can
make significant amounts of money from the stock market as is, but this would
allow them access to information so that they can guarantee an income via
stocks. Obviously, insider trading would need to be made legal for this
to work, but with this we will never have to pay our representatives in
government ever again.
Alternatively, we can force them to have
real jobs, such as lawyer, or day laborer, and compensate them for the time
lost while serving. Basically, they would get money equal to what they
would have made in their profession in exchange for their services to the
country. Then they would go back to work once the Congressional session
is over and they would not receive any more money from the government unless
called up again. Basically, it works the same way as when you are
compensated to serve jury duty. You get money from the government, equal
to the pay you would have received while working your regular day job.
How about free perks? Allowing their
income to be supplemented by getting free hotel stays, free food, or other free
stuff could also enhance both the aforementioned options. In this case,
the free stuff would have to be restricted as a Saudi Prince promising massive
amounts of money to a Senator who is voting on a trade bill between the United
States and Saudi Arabia would not be allowed as that is actual bribery.
However, giving them preferential treatment, and other gifts that are
less likely to affect a vote, like gift baskets would be fine. In
essence, as long as what is being given is not actual money, but
"gifts", it could work out, with "gifts" being monitored to
ensure no bribery was committed.
Conclusion: The only thing that would probably
sit well with the public is the second pay option of only paying them when they
are actually doing work. However, free gifts that do not affect voting
would and could be viable. And insider trading is only illegal because
people think it is unfair that a person(s) gets information about stocks first
which could potentially make that person more money than everyone else.
In other words, it is about fairness. I am a libertarian though.
Fairness in nature is the same as equality, it generally does not exist
for people for each have to put in a certain amount of effort to succeed.
That effort unfortunately is almost never equal due to talents, or
personal relationships. Instead, people specialize in their own skills
and trade them, because we are not equal, and life is never fair. We
compensate each other and complement each other’s skill sets. Hence why I
do not mind free gifts for people in government so long as it is not actual
bribery (though the line is fairly thin). So what do you think?
Should we keep things as they are, or shake things up a bit.
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