Apart from that, in the renowned italian political system, we have 1) too many ministers. 2) too many "pack-carriers" (assistants of politicians who are paid like 2000 euros a month just to sit on the lap of the politician in question) 3)too many senate members. ( i mean, if a law is passed by the parliament, (miracle!) what need is there for other people to re-vote on it?! at this point, just merge the two of them and let it be) 4) too many political charges which are in the end irrelevant. 5)assenteism. i don't know about other states. but here in italy, only less than 10% of parliamentary members are in the parlament for more than 50% of a work year. yeah. some touch extreme low as to 2%. and that 2% is just when somebody wants to pass a law to reduce the salaries.
yeah, removing the salary might be bad if a poor guy wants to become a parlament member. Problem is, there are no longer poor guys who want to aspire. because, first off, you need to publicize yourself. Second, you need to fight off people who are already rich to begin with, and third, there is no longer that aspiration in the people.
Which is saddening, considering that politics are the only (unfortunately) thing italians seem to be good at...destroying it.
last count had a politic grab 11000 euros a month, already considering taxes and the rest.
Then he just need to stay in charge for just 2 years, 6 month, 11 days and a couple of hours. and guess what? he grabs a pension. and not a small one. a nice one. and then he can go on doing other jobs. nice uh?
not only that, they get even more money the longer they stay. and in the end it's all just taxes. taxes and taxes.
we have at the present 500 circa parliamentaries. and 300 senators (not considering senator-to-life) now, i don't know why there is a need for so many people. Wouldn't 11 parliamentaries and 3 senators be enough? and couldn't they just be randomly taken from the population whenever a law wishes to be done? it's not that difficult. It would be a "one day" chore. like jury duty. then off you go back to your life. it's utopistic, but there would certainly be less taxes to pay.