From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sun Sep 02 2001 - 11:16:19 MDT
Mike Lorrey asked
> Why would someone spend tens of
> millions of dollars to get elected president, a position that only pays
> a measely $400k/year, if they were not planning on stealing/soliciting
> bribes to get it all back before they leave office?
Very good question. Besides the fact that political bosses are paid way too
much for the paltry service they (infrequently) provide, it's also true that
they are not held accountable for their failures, dishonesty, broken promises,
and endangering the public with acts of war (to deflect attention from their
failures, dishonesty, broken promises, etc.). So, the cost is not just the
millions they are paid in salary (8 X $400,000 = $3.2 million, before tax
kick-back), but also the millions of tax dollars they waste deploying troops
unnecessarily to foreign countries. Private sector CEOs don't usually get away
with that level of organized criminal activity.
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego
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