With so many top executives and Wall Streeters having made fortunes while leading their investors and shareholders to the poor house there’s no wonder that everyone’s paying a lot of attention to corporate governance. But the recent effort by Congress to give themselves a pay raise makes me wonder whether we should use part of the grey matter going into paying executives right to paying politicians right. (By the way, giving themselves a pay raise while the rest of the economy burns is almost as boneheaded as the auto CEOs zipping to DC on their private jets.) Here’s just a quick idea. How about if we compensated the President and Congress based on the long-term performance of the economy.

We could, for example, pay them in “options” that are pegged to the S&P 500 or some other index and that vest over, let’s say, a decade or more. If that overweights economic performance maybe someone clever could develop a portfolio that is based on some combination of economic performance, maintaining the safety of the public, and overall happiness. Of course they need something to live on I guess so they would have to get loans against their future earnings.

This would do two things. It would give politicians the incentive to think really long term—beyond the next election. It would also attract people to political life who could actually make a positive difference.