Charlie Rose interviews Paul Volcker, longtime former chairman of the Federal Reserve and currently the chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Volcker talks bluntly about fixing the broken financial system, compensation on Wall Street, the future of the American economy, and the Obama administration’s performance so far. Volcker is particularly pessimistic about getting things done in Washington: “The American political process is about as broken as the financial system.” [%comments]
Yes We Can? Paul Volcker’s Not So Sure
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“So I did a bit of research to confirm and get the latest information on something that’s been known for some time. As reported by a CBS Political Hotsheet, in turn referring to an Open Secrets report on the wealth status of members of Congress, 44 percent of members of Congress are millionaires. Some of the other 56 percent aren’t far off the mark. And this is based on information that does not include all of the legislators’ assets. Considering that about one percent of Americans are millionaires, the discrepancy is overwhelming and foreboding. Why? It pretty much means that to be elected, a person must have money and have access to money. That leaves a lot of highly qualified people out in the cold, eligible to serve in theory, but in practice shut out of the political landscape.”
– From http://mauledagain.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html#475259359161946068
So lets pass a law offering our senators $1M a year in salary with 2 provisos: They are barred for working for any company, institution or any entity that does work for the government and/or benefits from government legislation (basically they can teach) and that they are limited to 2 6 year terms. Walking out of DC with $12M in the bank will free them from looking to turn a buck after leaving office.
Lets put this in a different perspective:
As bad as the US government seems to be, what are the alternatives? 4~5 other government systems in this world would be comparable to US in both physical landmass and population:
People’s Republic of China
Russia
Canada
India?
Brazil?
Anyone care to trade for their government system?
I think the US government is performing poorly but “pass performance does not predict future outcomes.” Thus as long as people still want to live under this system, we will find a way.