IMO governments, like websites, should be boring but effective, focused on small day to day improvements, not all flash and empty marketing chasing cultural trends...
But try convincing a democracy that politicians should be paid more.
I believe the basic pay is £86k. They're not brain surgeons or rocket scientists, so even that is not that bad.
But I believe the average gravy train bumps this up 3X with extras.
It's a literal gravy train of subsidies and expenses and allowances! Sure the basic pay is, well, it's arguably not that bad ... but the gravy on top is tremendous. Not to mention the network contacts which plug their gravy train into the more lucrative gravy superhighway later.
Yeah, voters don't want to pay MPs more. Yet when voters are asked, they want highly intelligent, motivated people. They want them to have technical expertise, which means time spent in higher education. Then they want them to work a full time job in Parliament during the week, but also be open to constituency concerns on the weekend. And once all of this is pointed out, voters concede that maybe MPs deserve to be paid on par with professionals like doctors. (It's a different matter that UK doctors are underpaid).
> But I believe the average gravy train bumps this up 3X with extras.
Citation needed. They're on a shorter leash now with expenses. Don't go citing one or two bad apples either, show us what the median MP claims as expenses. According to you, it should be around £170k a year.
In general, politicians and their aides in the UK are underpaid. Most capable people find they're better off working in Canary Wharf or elsewhere in London. An example is the head of economic policy for the Labour Party earning £50k while writing policy for a £2 trn economy. (https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/01/19/british-politic...)
Maybe Congress needs the equivalent of UX and product types who actually care about what the people want... and can explain how it works to us in fancy how-to videos.
Anyway, I'm very sure there are good MP's, but I'll not go so far as to say these people are underpaid.
I plugged the question into AI ... see below. Not to mention the subsidised "everything". Holidays in mates villas (and what mates, eh). The "director" positions on various companies, and, and ... it's not just the monetary value of these things. It's an absolute gravy train.
Generated Hypothetical Answers: we can provide some hypothetical scenarios based on varying levels of responsibility:
Scenario 1: Backbench MP without additional roles:
Salary: £86,584
Maximum Expense Claims:
Office: £85,000
Accommodation (Constituency only): £9,300
Travel: Assuming moderate travel expenses, let's estimate £10,000
Other Expenses: £5,000
Scenario 2: MP with Ministerial role and chairing a committee:
Salary: £86,584 + Ministerial salary (e.g., £50,000)
Expense Claims: Similar to Scenario 1, let's use the same estimates
Total: £86,584 + £50,000 + £85,000 + £9,300 + £10,000 + £5,000 + £11,600 = £257,484
Remember: These are just hypothetical examples, and the actual value for any individual MP can be significantly higher or lower depending on their specific circumstances.
sure it would be nice if we could have Aristotelian philosopher kings style politicians but that's not human nature.
Members of Congress have plenty of support devoted to both what people say they want and what they actually positively respond to. That’s...the entire political side of the operation.