Column: Politicians have become privileged class

The Honolulu Salary Commission just recommended bloated salary raises for top government officials. For City Council members, pay would inflate from $68,904 to $113,292 (a 64.4% increase), with a 60.2% increase to $123,292 for the Council chairman. Departmental directors would receive 12.5% raises.

What of the little people? Sharing the state’s pay classifications, city secretaries earn as little as $3,552 monthly, about $20.50 an hour (“SR-16” level). Typists and assistants make $2,863 monthly (SR-08), roughly $16.50. And the minimum wage is $12, less than $25,000 per year. Thousands of private workers juggle multiple part-time jobs in lieu of a full-time position.

In Adrian Woolridge’s “The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World” (2021), the author explains merit’s rise in government and business alike. Today, Singapore, China, Japan and South Korea celebrate academic achievement and push student excellence. Woolridge provides an update on ancient China’s competitive civil service, achieved through universal (male) competition and potentially lifelong study. Today, paying top bureaucrats and legislators handsomely reaches a zenith in Singapore. There, outside employment is banned; our City Council similarly bans moonlighting. However, Singapore pays all government workers well to compete with business, while making housing affordable for all. More than anywhere, employees work where best-suited, do well, and receive rewards.

Globally, this guiding principle of merit is under attack. Millennia ago, Plato warned of government by either rich (“plutocracy”) or mob (democracy’s downfall). He harshly called for separating rich children from their parents, having the “village” raise equal pupils.

Woolridge names the current major threats to meritocracy: The populist right has eschewed experts. The rich have cloaked themselves in “merit” in school admissions and job positions — “gaming the system.”

Who now would honestly claim that life in Hawaii is not characterized by family and school privilege? Who has the courage to admit that politicians — regardless of how they got there — perpetuate a privileged class?

Eight of nine Council members graduated from a private high school or college. One Council member, formerly the Hawaii Construction Alliance’s lobbyist, was among those who purchased into the “affordable housing” project at 801 South Street that taxpayers helped subsidize with zoning and facilities-fee waivers. Two Council members were staffers to other Council members. And how often is a political staffer or appointee either the spouse, child, or friend of a major lobbyist or politician?

We take politics very personally. There is also objective truth. Insider information is power’s currency. This playing field is so uneven, it’s on a ridgeline in Hawaii Kai. In Honolulu, salary increases before cultural reform is putting the cart before the horse.

No doubt, our leaders hold benevolent intentions. Still, I won’t support blatant wealth inequality, nor a culture of patronage over merit. I object.

As a homeowner and taxpayer, I directly share the impact of City and County of Honolulu’s decisions with this readership. If you feel similarly, please direct your concerns to the Honolulu City Council.

Dylan P. Armstrong is former chairman of the Manoa Neighborhood Board (2019-2022), an urban planner and conservationist; he served on the state’s coronavirus incident command in 2020.