Congress members’ salaries should be no higher than the equivalent of their state’s median income and no other sources of income, such as insider trading, should be permitted. Members of Congress, as representatives of the people in their states, should be motivated by increasing the wellbeing of their constituents only. Also, the People in the states, not Congress, should decide the salary amount of their representative based on performance, but never higher than the state’s median income. This should attract representatives who actually want to serve the people in their states and who have an incentive to bring prosperity to their states.
2 Likes
That will not work. The people who do the same job for the same employer must be paid equally. Poor districts would suffer from that and so would those in minority areas or women etc. Insider trading is already illegal. You would do better to require stock be put in a blind trust during time in office. There are many good people who would not run if you lowered the salary because they too have families to feed and housing in DC is quite expensive and without some other important restraints on powers of the federal government would set them up to be ripe for bribes as well opening yet another can of worms. Plus amendments have to be reasonable or you will have zero chance they will get passed or ratified.