Granted that in current times money is significant but this is for one of the highest positions in the country! Hillary Clinton may not get to be Secretary of State - just because President Bush signed the salary increase of that position while she was in office as senator. The intent of the constitution is to prevent anyone in position of power to lobby to fatten up a post before he or she takes it later.
In some countries, people in power publicly voted and approved the increases of their own salaries. Democracy has been around for a long time and so has capitalism and in most cases, the demarcation has blurred. I've always wondered why the English language has 2 words that mean the same thing - isn't that a waste of vocabulary? How would I answer my son if he asked?
True that the American way is not necessarily applicable to other countries but the basic tenets of democracy such as transparency, justice and freedom must exist for countries which claim to be democratic, otherwise the claim is a hollow one. Zimbabwe had elections, so it is democratic? Why would people riot and cause civil unrest - because they are bad people or were they manipulated?
Thailand had elections. They elected the parties and the parties elected a Prime Minister - onto a musical chair! They gave Darwinism a new image and 5 PMs later, they are still at it. No future visitors, no future moolah, no future economy. Now THAT is making a statement. Visions of Bangkok being a fashion centre for Asia and healing tourism hub of the region, now suffer from astigmatism.
Somehow, now that I'm spending more time listening to live feed than reading off the web, I begin to compare with policies and operations familiar to me.... and it is getting interesting. You should spend a whole day just watching the news as it develops, trust me, it's not boring!
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