This is why Singapore pays them even more than we do.
Anyway, minimum wages (despite being ok policies) aren't what people are actually paid, and of course aren't especially what non-working people are paid. And remember that non-working people, namely children and the elderly, are poorer than workers.
And idk where you got the idea that people don't make minimum wage. They absolutely do. Go look at a job board.
Nobody said the multiple has to be 5. It could be whatever the current ratio for Singapore is.
Corrupt elected officials is more of the norm, than the anomaly world-wide.
Though, legislators don't have individual power to take action to be worth giving specific bribes to; what may happen is that if someone is friendly to your business, you want to keep them motivated to keep re-running for Congress and do the awful annoying job of being a legislator, when they could instead quit and go back to industry or retire on the beach or whatever.
> 2. only rich people will run in the election.
Which is not true unless you think AOC is rich. It's not unheard of that congresspeople sleep in their office i.e. are homeless because DC rent is high.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141635119/the-first-gen-z-me...
any source for this? your link just mentions a representative who has bad credit, it never claims he is homeless.
> Dozens of members of Congress have even turned their Capitol Hill offices into their makeshift apartments.
https://nypost.com/2018/05/01/these-politicians-are-sleeping...
Of course, sometimes they're just weird and like it. Mitt Romney lives in a small apartment and only watches TV for fun and he's a multimillionaire.
Salaries wont fix bribes for someone with that much to command and even the already rich can make a lot of money getting into politics. Their salary means nothing to them.
You live in shitty 2bdrm apartment with wife and two kids in poor school district? With no savings and vacation? Your life is hell and you are that much more likely to take bribes.
It’s all about incentives.
But GDP is a bit misleading. A lot of it is financial services lately. It’s not real goods or services.