"LOBBYISTS"; and My Further Dissappearance...and Absolute Return

I lied. I thought I was back in September...but I was not. But I am now....with a thought on government service and lobbyists: There is no such thing as elected officials anymore. Government service today is not a job, much less a profession; it is an internship for later employment as a paid lobbyist in the private sector.

However we electorate deserve nothing more; because we pay government officials like interns, expect them to work long, hard hours at outrageously cheap wages. For two, four six or more years, we give them nothing but a glimpse of an economic future. Little surprise then, if, once elected, and if they have any sense of logic, they treat their government service and their voting record as a learning experience, a step on a ladder, mere preparation toward a subsequent respectable (read: properly remunerted) job as a corporate lobbyist or business consultant.

Members of the House should be paid a million dollars; several million; members of the Senate more...including great pension benefits when they retire. And those proferred pension benefits should be conditional: recinded with heavy penalties (including jail) when an ex-Congressperson (or perhaps even other high government official) accepts any future lobbying activities/salaries.

Government service should be thought of the glorious end of the financial line. All activities indulged in after that may be demanded and expected to be pro bono...in the free service of any and all America and Americans who have been so generous with their tax dollars to pay their exceedingly generous salaries and continuing pension benefits.