Friday, December 30, 2005
Pay should compare to power
I agree wholeheartedly with these sentiments:
It seems silly to me to make people choose between wealth and serving their community and country. Why don’t we remove the dilemma, and pay people that we invest with great power and responsibility pay comparable to such power?
Clearly, the answer is that we’re generally unthinking and cheap. We’d rather get mediocre public servants and politicians and have lower taxes, than pay slightly more taxes or, God no! have slightly less spending for government entitlements.
in the end, talent goes where the money is, and if we want talented people in public service, we ought to be prepared to pay them more. They may very well make the extra money worth our while by saving us money through better policies and management skills. And as mentioned before, people who are paid a lot of money are under a lot of pressure to deliver the goods. When they fail, the consequences are often severe and just. I don't mind in the slightest having the Sword of Damocles hang over the heads of public officials. It's not good to rely exclusively on fear as a motivator, but it would be silly to ignore the motivating factor altogether.
It seems silly to me to make people choose between wealth and serving their community and country. Why don’t we remove the dilemma, and pay people that we invest with great power and responsibility pay comparable to such power?
Clearly, the answer is that we’re generally unthinking and cheap. We’d rather get mediocre public servants and politicians and have lower taxes, than pay slightly more taxes or, God no! have slightly less spending for government entitlements.
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