Text 12232, 50 rader
Skriven 2008-03-10 19:36:24 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 12115 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Errors
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Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Sunday March 09 2008 at 12:23:

MV> The UK is part of Europe.

Really? ;-)))

RB>> This year, the representatives in the German Bundestag voted
RB>> themslves a 9% increase in salary.

MV> And that was exorbitant?

If you compare that, plus the other privileges they enjoy, with what the
"common man" (middle class) earns, damn right.

MV> Poiticians deserve a raise just like evryone else. I can not judge if
MV> that raise you mention was out of proportion.

I can. They talk about "good money for good work" and then, when an important
vote comes up, the so-called "Fraktionszwang" (voting along the party line is
mandatory) kicks in and for all practical purposes you only need 4-5
representatives instead of many hundreds.

Add to that the fact that some even vote for legislation they consider violates
the constitution with the excuse that "it will be voided by the supreme court
anyway". That's the excuse the social democrats made when they voted for the
"verdachtsunabhaengige Ueberwachung" (monitoring of electronic communicatuions
without prior suspicion of wrongdoing). So the courts are now part of the
legislative in Germany, because the representatives are too lazy to do their
work properly, and too spineless to vote the way the constition specifies
"according to nothing but their own consciences".

And of course, many of the representatives only consider their well-paid and
well-pensioned jobs a "part-time" affair, and are busy earning big bucks (or
Euros if you prefer) as lawyers, supervisory board members or lobbyists.

I would like to see ALL "part-time" jobs by representatives made illegal,
forcing them to finally do something except talk for their money.

MV> What *I* find way out of proportion is that the ex-CEO of my bank
MV> (ABN-AMRO) that is now taken over by Fortis and some Scottish and a
MV> Spanish bank, walks away with over 20 million Euro in bonusses. For
MV> NOT taking good care of the money that I trusted to him. :-(

If he gets the money free of tax, I would tend to agree. But only politicians
enjoy that kind of privilege. You can't break laws you make yourself.

Cheers, Bob

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