Tuesday, August 4, 2009

MPs housing allowances

The idea that we can compare different sectors of business as a justification for the MPs getting housing allowances and other perks is nonsense.

You choose to be in an area of work, therefore your’re hamstrung by the conditions around it.

Saying that MPs could earn much more in the private sector, firstly is nonsensical as there is no proof that they would get any of the high profile, high paying jobs that they are being compared to. And secondly it’s a silly argument because if we did that we could compare any two sectors as a justification for high, or indeed low salaries.

The CEO of a major charity could claim that the money you give to support the charity needs to fund their exorbitant salary because “…I could get much more in the private sector”, we wouldn’t accept it then, neither should we accept it as an excuse for our MPs ‘double dipping’

As for the MPs themselves claiming that they are ‘keeping their families together’ and having that ludicrous claim backed by the Prime Minister, just shows how out of touch with us lowly citizens. A salary of $275,000 should well enough keep a family together. I keep mine together on well less than one quarter of that.