Naked Capitalism Link of the Day

Today's link: Pay Frozen, More New York Judges Leave Bench, at the NYT:

But across the country — and in New York, more than most places — being a judge has in recent years come with one big negative: the salary. New York judges have not had a raise in 12 years, making the state one of the more extreme examples of a growing pay gap nationally between judges and other professionals, including partners at top law firms, who can earn 10 times the salary of the judge before whom they are arguing a case.
Now, for the first time in memory, judges are leaving the bench in relatively large numbers — not to retire, but to return to being practicing lawyers. Turnover in New York has increased rapidly in the last few years: nearly 1 in 10 judges are now leaving annually, a new study shows.
In New York State, at least a dozen have resigned and explicitly cited the pay. The latest is James M. McGuire, a judge on the intermediate state appeals court in Manhattan, who last week resigned his position at the white marble courthouse on Madison Avenue. His judicial salary was $144,000. He stepped down to be a partner at a law firm, Dechert LLP, where average partner pay is $1.4 million.

That's another way to ruin the government, keep the pay so low that you can't get good people to work there.  Republicans will succeed one way or another to ruin our society, but their getting elected is perhaps the most simple.  Can it be considered going Galt if you leave the public sector because after rounds of cutting taxes, the pay is too low.  It would seem like the taxes on partners making $1.4 million a year could be higher, thus helping to pay more for judge salaries.  I'm willing to guess that being a judge will contribute more to society than being a partner in a large law firm.  I'll let my sister who is a partner in a firm, but always wanted to be a judge weigh in on that one, she might have a better insight.