Ocasio-Cortez redistributes her staff’s incomes

[Right_in_Virginia]

Ocasio-Cortez redistributes her staff’s incomes
American Thinker, Feb 24 2019, Thomas Lifson

A young woman with no real-world experience is about to learn the hard way that her ideology is impractical.  I have to give Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez credit for sincerity in her announcement on Twitter that she plans to compress the pay scale of her staff, reallocating the budget she receives for staff, and cutting the pay at the top, while increasing the pay at the bottom. If she stays in office long enough, the consequences of implementing leftist cant will become clear to her (and us) over time, so it may be a teaching experience”  (as former President Obama called it).  Stephanie Aiken of Roll Call sympathetically reports:

[...]

Ocasio-Cortez’s solution requires sacrifices for staffers at the top of the pay scale, potentially opening her to criticism from the right that her office policies, like her political identity as a Democratic socialist, call for a form of class warfare.

It could also pose challenges to attracting and retaining older employees who have obligations such as mortgages and child care — which in D.C. can cost $23,000 a year for a single child. 

Salaries in Ocasio-Cortez’s office top out at $80,000, Trent said. That’s well below the median pay for Hill chiefs of staff at $154,634, according to the Legistorm analysis. And it’s a fraction of what experienced staffers could make in other jobs in Washington.

[Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director Corbin] Trent acknowledged that some people would have to take pay cuts to work in the office. He said that was a trade-off that employees had been willing to make: “I don’t think you always put the burden on the bottom.”

He included himself, noting that he has two children and makes $67,000 a year. “Is it easy? No,” he said. “But part of walking the walk is understanding that everyone is going to have a little bit of a struggle. You divide it up. You work together.”

That will work for only as long as her prominence lasts, and as long as senior staff can continue to make personal sacrifices, (and persuade their spouses and kids that their sacrifices are worth it).  Even more importantly, the logic of equality doesn’t stop with her own salary, which is set by law at $174,000. There are signs that she is enjoying this level of income, what with her moving to a luxury apartment complex and dressing in designer duds. But sooner or later, staff will begin to resent her luxuries compared to their own sacrifices.

The staff members who are perceived as capable will receive other offers, maybe from other progressive members of Congress, maybe from media, or maybe from lobbyists. They can’t spend the ideological satisfaction, prestige and prominence they receive in lieu of market-level salaries for their skills. Sooner or later, the ideological jollies wear thin, especially as other family members/lovers complain about the sacrifices thrust on them.

More:  https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/ocasiocortez_redistributes_her_staffs_incomes.html

[Right_in_Virginia]

$52,000 for everyone!  Except her.

[truth_seeker]

And the leading voices from Republicans include...….

???

[Fishrrman]

Sounds like the Twentieth Century Motor Company, occasional-communist style...  ;)

[roamer_1]

So any Jumping-Jack-Flash, the really good guys, worthy of more money, are going to go elsewhere ad be snapped up immediately... And Occaisional Cortex will be left with mediocre help.

Just desserts.