A senator could vote for an infrastructure bill, then buy stock in concrete. Or they could sit on the Armed Services Committee and trade in defense contractors stock.
Lawmakers could vote for infrastructure bill, then buy stock in a concrete firm.
part of the public service aspect of these positions should *absolutely disclude government officials in positions of legislative power, from investing any new funds at all during tenure.
I don’t care if you go broke in office. That’s part of the job if so.
Admittedly, there is no government housing for politicians, which means either buying renting in washington DC (not cheap) in addition to your home in your own state, or moving entirely to Washington DC for a position you may lose in 4 years.
The entire job seems to be closed out to everyone but millionaires.
Frankly we should get rid of career politicians. Serving in public office should be more like jury duty. Civil servants do the real legwork.
I’d go even further, and say that we don’t need “representatives” anymore. We all own devices that allow us to communicate across the world instantly, we all could potentially have our say directly in matters that concern us. The issues with this are ultimately only technical, and thus could be overcome.
Media has slagged off direct democracy many times (eg the Jack Black episode of the Mandalorian) but I truly believe that is what a real democracy would be. Yes, things like Brexit can happen when people get the chance to vote, but that only happened because of a sustained disinformation campaign - one that could not be maintained indefinitely for every issue under vote. If people had a chance to vote on how things are implemented and whether or not it was actually working these problems could be mitigated, and overall we would end up with a more functional and progressively better system for society.
part of the public service aspect of these positions should *absolutely disclude government officials in positions of legislative power, from investing any new funds at all during tenure.
I don’t care if you go broke in office. That’s part of the job if so.
If you go broke on a minimum of $174k/y, you’re spending too much on luxuries and/or hush money anyway.
Admittedly, there is no government housing for politicians, which means either buying renting in washington DC (not cheap) in addition to your home in your own state, or moving entirely to Washington DC for a position you may lose in 4 years.
The entire job seems to be closed out to everyone but millionaires.
Frankly we should get rid of career politicians. Serving in public office should be more like jury duty. Civil servants do the real legwork.
I’d go even further, and say that we don’t need “representatives” anymore. We all own devices that allow us to communicate across the world instantly, we all could potentially have our say directly in matters that concern us. The issues with this are ultimately only technical, and thus could be overcome.
Media has slagged off direct democracy many times (eg the Jack Black episode of the Mandalorian) but I truly believe that is what a real democracy would be. Yes, things like Brexit can happen when people get the chance to vote, but that only happened because of a sustained disinformation campaign - one that could not be maintained indefinitely for every issue under vote. If people had a chance to vote on how things are implemented and whether or not it was actually working these problems could be mitigated, and overall we would end up with a more functional and progressively better system for society.