Wasteful Spending or Not?

[exploited]

[Mo~]

Let's see, where I work I get paid my wages. Period. I am entitled to rent a place in the man-camp(like hell I'm going into a man-camp with some 50 roughnecks and me ). One of the guys I know pays $450/month utilities included. They are furnished and if you want your own furniture you supply it yourself(I need a decent mattress due to an L2 compression fracture). My youngest's company pays them $5 per diem for travel(It costs way more in gas in a compact car from the nearest real town).

We get a clothing allowance every 6 months because Fire Resistant Clothing is required on an oil pad. That's enough to buy a coat. I don't work on the pads so I just got a pair of pants, a shirt, a hoodie and a face hood in case I should ever have to go to one. I'm f**k if it's really cold, but I bought the hoodie big enough to fit over some layers so the FRC will be on the outer layer as required. Youngest's employer supplies one uniform shirt to work in food service. She washes it everyday along with the black pants she must purchase herself. Her shoes are required to be leather by her employer and steel toed(required by ME). I bought her a pair for $50.

I am required to wear steel toed shoes that must be replaced every 6 months to 1 year. My X gets $100 a year boot allowance. I get nothing. Decent boots that hold up and don't cause back damage run $120 to $150 for me, for him and his size 13 clods is about $250. We are in WY and because of our jobs they have to be weather resistant and stand up to oil, grease and diesel fuel and be able to tolerate use on rough surfaces. Walmart just won't do.

I'm a mechanic. I supply my own tools and get no allowance even though I need specialized tools that most folks wouldn't normally buy for personal use and locking tool boxes to keep the f**k at work from stealing my shit even though their shit is provided by the general contractor because they don't want another world renowned sub contractor f**k up out on one of the pads.

So, ya, I think congress could take a few cuts if not just to save money to get a better understanding of what life is like for the people they are supposedly representing.

[Winchester]

I don't know if it's wasteful spending or not. A representative should be able to visit his/her district in order to better represent the district. In order to determine if the travel is wasteful or not we must first determine what is a reasonable number of trips and secondly is the representative being judicial in securing such trips. The fact that they don't use the "free" train doesn't tell us if using said train is necessarily practical in all cases or if it the best use of their time.

I've got no problem with a limit being set on number of trips home or on the means, ie free train or coach class on a plane, anything over and above said limits comes out of the representatives pay.

[cool_chick]

I was thinking the same thing re: time is money, Winchester. However, if it is only 4 hours train from Toronto to Ottawa, it would cost that much time to get to the airport, go through all that crap, etc. So IMO it's a waste of money for those from Toronto or within a reasonable distance (e.g., B.C. reps need to fly).

[Mo~]

Ya know, back before Right to Work and Work at Will caught on, things that were required for a person to perform their job were either provided or reimbursed by the employer by labor law or you got to write them off on your taxes even if they could be used outside of work as long as they were required for the job, therefore....

I think pols from RtW/WaW states should have to have their expenses approved by the voters of their states. After all, the voters are their employers. If they don't like the package, then don't run for office and find another line of work. Gawd knows I've been told that enough. Any money that they would have received as things stand now that isn't approved by the voters should go into the General Fund of their home state and it's use be put to the voters.

[The Dude]

I've always wondered what would happen if we offered to pay politicians a lot of money with lavish expenses comped.

Would this be wasteful spending or with this bring out the best of the best in professional services to run the gov't and lead to much more overall efficiency and intelligence?

Imagine if scientists and economists and sociologists ran for office instead of the dunderheads we have now?

[Winchester]

[The Dude]

[Winchester]

[The Dude]

Well, he like so many others, come from business. I want less business folk and more professionals. Professors, scientists, economists, sociologists.

No lawyers and businessmen, really.

Also, imagine if the primary for a partisan district that party would win was scientist vs professor of engineering or something.

Remember when astronauts became politicians?