Rich Karlgaard with a modest proposal: Pay politicians more!
Give these takers the chance to become rich legally.
Here is how. Let’s put every elected federal official and appointee and bureaucrat on a stock option plan. The value of these options would be tied to the health and wealth of America. Half the options would vest over two years so as to spur politicians to make immediate changes. The other half would vest over 20 years, so politicians could build a framework for enduring success and be rewarded for it.
The options would gain or lose value based on these criteria:
1. Noninflationary GDP growth
2. Job growth
3. Vitality of the small-business sector
4. Wealth growth of American households in all four socioeconomic quadrants
5. Educational achievements of American K-12 kids versus the world
6. Health and longevity of Americans
7. Prevention of military or terrorist attack
8. Reduction of the national debt
As Rich himself says, this proposal might not be exactly the way to go, or even close, but he gets at a very real and big problem in our representative democracy, one that modern public choice theorists like James Buchanan described. And which those older public choice theorists like Madison and Hamilton wrestled with as well as anyone ever has. They put a system in place that survived and mostly prospered for more than 200 years. But it does seem we need some big tweaks or even more fundamental changes to secure, once again, the blessings of liberty.
