Someone putting lug nuts on a Chevy is performing a public service- they are providing a service to the public for a fair charge.
Someone representing constituents should be doing the same thing. Performing that service for a reasonable fee. Only they, and the press, like to present themselves as somehow making a sacrifice to work for the public- you know, the yarn about how much more money they could be making as lawyers in the private sector, but they are just so selfless that they only work for 1xx,000 a year. It’s probably usually true that they could make more salary elsewhere, but only focusing on that severely discounts the bennies, getting to grandstand during hearings, be set up for sizable speaker fees and a well paying job lobbying after leaving office, the pleasure of having sycophants licking their buttholes, as well as the general benefit of being well connected to people in power.
