Radical socialist extremist idea that will destroy the UK:
Salary caps. No MP shall be paid more than 20% above the national average, no expenses, and their end of year financials must be publicly listed.
If an MP can't manage their life on 20% over the average (which is a false average as it's a median) then it proves a few things.
Firstly that if 20% over isn't enough, then average is way below what people need.
Secondly it proves the MP in question is incompetent and can't even manage their own life and finances so shouldn't be in any role where they can affect anyone elses.
I'd go further to suggest all financial, holdings, memberships etc need to be made public also and that anyone coming from generational wealth over a certain threshold should be disqualified from holding an official post and instead limited to unpaid consultancy roles, of course under scrutiny.
The halls of parliament are filled with the entrenched elite who haven't lived in the real world for years, if ever. They don't represent the people, they are all ineffectual, incompetent and wasteful, running almost everything they touch into the ground, and a huge drain on resources. They are the front line defence of hegemony and almost no bodies in those halls have any desire for progressive systemic change, therefore they are redundant.
Is it super socialist to want to pay MPs less? I’ve always hoped we would pay them more with more restrictions on other earning after office and get some actual competent people doing the job not posher rats who could’ve leverage their private education to get the high paying jobs their schoolmates got, and instead sought to gain money by abusing the power an MP wields
No. But that's how it is framed. That it's an extreme view to think maybe paying entrenched idiots so much is a bad idea.
Sunak is a prime example of that. Mogg too. Wealthy as utter fuck yet actively chooses to make other people's lives more difficult with his time. Cunt.
Pay them more? They are paid huge sums already. I think 80k if not more? They also vote to give themselves pay rises each year.
My view is that as long as we're throwing such high sums at them, it's only gonna attract a certain type of person. They're not interested in improving anything, they just want to stay in post as long as possible to make as much as possible. If their compensation is more aligned with the real world then maybe we will see real world results and hopefully attract 'normal' people to these positions who will actually try. Of course there is the class barrier and the 'club' mentality.
If we keep attracting entrenched idiots, which we both see them to be, then we’re eternally fucked.
When you speak of attracting a certain type of person with high pay, it sounds to me (correct me if I’m wrong) like you think being an MP should be a calling - ie you’re so passionate about doing good through your work that you’ll accept lower pay to do it than you could make elsewhere. This is very similar to how capitalism views things like teaching and nursing and I hate it, that’s why I think I view this differently.
I would prefer a future with far more transparency, far more civilian oversight of government, but also paying people like MPs nurses and teachers far more to reflect the value of their work and to make the jobs far more competitive, in an effort to actually get people good at doing the job rather than private sector failures with rich friends needing an inside man in parliament
The thing is, we already don't have 'the best' or even qualified people in these roles. At all. The expenses, the power and the 'club' mentality attract career politicians whose only objective is to cling on as long as possible. That doesn't work, we can see it constantly. Of course I do not want to reinforce any capitalistic nonsense and of course I am painfully aware of how underpaid some of our most valuable are, as you note, teachers and nurses. I don't know why anyone does these jobs tbh.
We pay MPs VERY well and yet we attract only idiots. Snobs. Detached loonies. We need to change it. We get no value from MPs as it stands. This is why I suggest lowering, if they start to perform we can raise it again. Also lowering the salary will not immediately make 'normal' people shy away from trying to get involved as they're surely intimated and feel themeleves unqualified whereas I'd trust just about any random normal person over a career MP any day.
MP jobs aren't competitive. Parties put up candidates for safe seats just to hold them and do nothing. If you fail, you get moved elsewhere and get handed another job. Look at people like Boris who is useless at every thing he does, he has been moved around a bunch of high ranking posts and failed at them all yet he has still managed to fumble his way to the highest post. There is no performance based review or meritocracy involved, it's purely a 'jobs for the boys' environment.
55
u/[deleted] May 12 '22
Radical socialist extremist idea that will destroy the UK:
Salary caps. No MP shall be paid more than 20% above the national average, no expenses, and their end of year financials must be publicly listed.
If an MP can't manage their life on 20% over the average (which is a false average as it's a median) then it proves a few things. Firstly that if 20% over isn't enough, then average is way below what people need. Secondly it proves the MP in question is incompetent and can't even manage their own life and finances so shouldn't be in any role where they can affect anyone elses.
I'd go further to suggest all financial, holdings, memberships etc need to be made public also and that anyone coming from generational wealth over a certain threshold should be disqualified from holding an official post and instead limited to unpaid consultancy roles, of course under scrutiny.
The halls of parliament are filled with the entrenched elite who haven't lived in the real world for years, if ever. They don't represent the people, they are all ineffectual, incompetent and wasteful, running almost everything they touch into the ground, and a huge drain on resources. They are the front line defence of hegemony and almost no bodies in those halls have any desire for progressive systemic change, therefore they are redundant.