(It's not enough).
I want compassionate, practical, honest, hard working people as teachers, policemen and government leaders. How difficult could that be?
Maybe we don’t pay them enough.
Allow me to propose to pay teachers 5 times more than we do now.
What kind of teachers could then we get?
Certainly we want them to care about the kids and not just the money. But if we pay them what they are worth to us, maybe we will get what we pay for.
How much would we have to pay to get good mayors, governors, city councilmen and such. Could we as a community not benefit from good stewardship? As it stands today, the brilliant leaders and economic experts of the world would be fools to go into public service. To enter a job where your privacy was out the window and other politicians, unions, news organizations, churches and special interest groups would do everything possible to trip you up - you would have to be nuts to give up your private jet and expense account. The ones who typically apply for public office are at best well meaning idealists who will try their best, but have no vision, courage or good ideas.
How much do we pay the president?
What kind of president could we get if we offered a salary comparable to other gigantic corporations? Why is it that if I have a small business I can put out an ad and before long choose between ten or a hundred candidates - but a business as big and broad as the United States only gets to choose between two people, that nobody is really that impressed with?
One of the problems with the whole model of democracy seems to be that over time the politicians will try to buy their votes by promising more and more gifts, entitlements and programs to more and more voters. Both political parties want power, and since votes equal power, the race for votes becomes more important than direction, fiscal responsibility, moral compass and long term outcome.
There are brilliant, compassionate people in the world, who have great solutions to all societal challenges, but we won't get them. The present situation is that we don’t trust politicians, so we pay them and support them with what we think they are worth. When, by shere accident, we get someone with a brain, willing to face facts, and willing to go to work (like - I my oppinion - Arnold Scwartzenegger) they meet with half-mast efforts from their supporters and massive resistance from everyone who doesn't want anything to change when it comes right down to it. Sure, we are behind you all the way - way behind. Heck, as a society we probalby don't actually want real leaders, because we can't agree on a direction to take the country. The world is rapidly changing, but we want to pretend we don't have to.
So we all get what we want.
Nothing changes, except the moving targets for our complaints.
We don't vote, we don't pay attention and instead of getting leaders we settle for entertainers.
America is a great experiment of the persuit of personal freedom. Generations fought and died for this freedom we now take for granted, but it seems like we have stopped like a bug on the road and have lost our sense of direction. Maybe this is good, but while we are standing still, why don't we try paying teachers a lot more money. Maybe we'll get smarter kids, maybe we'll even get leaders that have genuine ideas.
At least that would be entertaining.
