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Comment by card_zero | Hacker News Reader

Pay peas, get monks? Anyway the idea of preventing corruption by bribing them officially is weird. It means they aren't any more morally upstanding, and would still do corrupt activities in their minds, we just hope that when they're well paid they won't make the effort. On the basis that they're immoral and lazy, so it balances out.

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Anyway the idea of preventing corruption by bribing them officially is weird.

Labeling the act of someone getting paid to do a job as "bribery" is even more weird. While I certainly wouldn't do by current job if I was paid minimum wage, I don't know if I would say I'm being "bribed" by my employer to stick around. Even if it does appear to align with your new definition.

A millionaire approaches an attractive young woman in a bar and asks if she would be willing to spend the weekend with him at the country’s most expensive and luxurious hotel, waited on hand and foot and receiving a million pounds to sleep with him. The girl considers that it’s worth it for a million pounds, and agrees. The millionaire then suggests that they immediately sneak into the men’s toilet for quick sex for £5. She is shocked and insulted, and says “That’s disgusting! What kind of girl do you think I am?” He replies “We’ve already decided that. Now we’re just haggling over the price.”

We don't need to moralize everything when we can simply recognize patterns that work vs. patterns that don't work. And underpaying people definitely is not the way to get the results you want.

You may not like the reasons for WHY they work or not, but that is not relevant to WHETHER they work.

When I made minimum wage working at Subway, I would sneak extra sandwiches for myself here and there. I didn't strictly NEED them to physically survive, but hey -- I'm busting my ass for $7.25, I'm gonna pay myself a little bonus here and there. No one's watching, so I'm going to decide what's fair for a change.

Now I make much more than that. I no longer steal sandwiches from my employer.

I think this is the pattern for the great majority of people.

Pay peas, get independently wealthy part time politicians and filter out anyone lower or middle class.

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