May God smite me down for my greed

This year, my pay rise was 0.05%, which when inflation of 5.2% is taken into account, constitutes (again) a massive pay cut.

But that's OK, because I don't do this for money (shelter, food, clothes), I do it for love and that's the way God wants it, according to this Alabaman nincompoop politician:

“It’s a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren’t called to teach,” said State Sen. Shadrack McGill

And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It’s just in them to do. It’s the ability that God give ‘em. And there are also some teachers, it wouldn’t matter how much you would pay them, they would still perform to the same capacity.

“If you don’t keep that in balance, you’re going to attract people who are not called, who don’t need to be teaching our children. So, everything has a balance.” 

Jobs that aren't vocations or callings, and therefore do need pay rises, conveniently include 'politician':

 “He needs to make enough that he can say no, in regards to temptation.”

Senator McGill practices what he preaches: he voted for a pay increase for politicians. What have we learned? All politicians are implicitly male. They're all so morally weak that they have to be bribed by taxpayers not to take bribes, whereas teachers' poverty keeps them dedicated. Anyone who chooses a job for reasons of public service is asking to be paid badly! At least this man is admitting that he is naturally corrupt and that politics isn't a calling or public service.

It's an interesting argument, and yet one I suspect his Republican masters wouldn't entirely subscribe to. After all, the argument for bankers' bonuses is that their salaries aren't sufficient motivation for doing a decent job…

Obviously coming from Alabama, there's a tradition of this kind of argument. Slaves, for instance, worked damn hard, because - obviously - they weren't in it for the money. If you'd paid those black chaps and chapesses for their labour, you'd not have attracted those with a genuine calling for tobacco picking and sexual abuse. Once emancipation occurred, Alabama was lost.

The logical and holy thing for me to do is to give back my entire salary, as it's morally tainting everything I say in class. The lower the salary, the more dedicated the worker. Except for politicians, obviously.