>Public servants/members of the military not only pledge to avoid conflicts of interest, but the appearance of them as well. Shouldn't we hold economic activity that services those interests to that same standard?

But are we willing to pay for it? Government jobs already pay pretty poorly compared to the private sector. Slapping the equivalent of a non-compete onto them isn't going to make them more appealing. You might have gotten rid of all the corruption, but you also ensured that the government will be staffed by monkeys.

Military members, government employees, and defense contractors all receive their money from the same source - the defense budget. The government is already paying people super high salaries, just indirectly through a layer of contracts. So its not about the money.

Yes, and it's imperative that we do.

Even then an O-9/O-10 gets $17,675.10 a month[0] in base pay and $3,963 a month[1] in *tax exempt*[2] housing allowance for the DC metro area. That's $259,657.20 a year in salary. While maybe not high by C-suite or Silicone Valley standards, that ain't bad at all.

0. https://militarypay.defense.gov/Portals/3/Documents/2023%20B... 1. https://veteran.com/bah-rates-state/district-of-columbia-dc/ 2. https://militarypay.defense.gov/Pay/Tax-Information/Exempt/

What does O-9/O-10 correspond to in terms of rank, and what does that correspond to in the private sector? If that's equivalent to VP/c-suite at a large company, then $260k is pretty low.

O-9s are Vice Admirals/Lieutenant Generals. Three-star officers. O-10s are full Admirals and Generals. Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, service heads, combatant commanders.

O-10s are almost all direct reports of the Secretary of Defense and skip-level reports of the President. Many O-9s are direct reports of an O-10 and skip-level reports of the Secretary of Defense.

3 and 4 star generals/admirals. These would be C-suite executives and LoB level VPs in the private sector. Yes, compared to their private sector counter-parts $260,000 is low, and they also can only get compensated in pay; there is no equity , stock, or bonus options.

It's not so obvious I think. Since you mentioned one extreme, lets look at both: staffed by monkeys, or staffed by psychopaths who might prioritize personal gain over American interests. That's not a recipe for a clear winner if we're eliminating nuance.