What an effed-up state of affairs

The US President makes $400,000 per year, and the Vice President makes $208,100.

A US Senator or Representative makes $162,100.

A US Supreme Court Justice makes $199,200.

Closer to home, Ted Kulongoski, the chief elected official of the State of Oregon, pulls in $93,600. Oregon legislators make $18,408. Oregon Supreme Court Justices make $105,000.

What brings this all up? This report on how each state's governors fare economically with the highest paid employees (who are generally university football coaches). (Hat tip to the O's "Playbooks and Profits" blog).

U of O's Mike Bellotti makes about $1.25 million a year (despite consistently under-performing and habitually firing assistants as scapegoats). The highest paid state employee of all is Alabama's Nick Saban, who famously bolted from the Miami Dolphins for a lucrative $4 million of taxpayer money per year.

I understand that university sports are profit centers for schools. But often the sports, at best, pay for themselves. They generally don't add to the educational environment. That many argue that sports drive alumni giving isn't a fully-considered argument, since most of that money is given to sports programs, and thus doesn't benefit the educational environment anyway.

Meanwhile, states don't pay competitive salaries to their leaders. Any wonder that most people feel our politicians are poor leaders? Any wonder that they appear to be willing to go to great lengths to sweeten their pots in marginally legal, or downright illegal, ways?

I don't know the solution to the problem. I'm sure I don't even understand the whole problem. But, certainly, there's a problem, and it needs to be fixed...