You're ignoring the intangibles. Antonin Scalia, corporate attorney is a nobody. Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice, is quite a different matter. Sitting on the bench allows them to have an impact far in excess of anything a private citizen can have. It's the same with the Senate or Congress. How do you place a price on ego?
2. A low-paid judge is a bribable judge. Just look at the massive body of Senators and Representatives who are either "legally" bribed by special interests, or cross the line to the "illegal" kind (which are arguably more honest).
You would have to convince a lot of people that incomes in the $160,000 to $200,000 range is 'low paid'. It provides a very nice lifestyle, far nicer that 95% of the people in this country enjoy. They knew what they were getting into. If they felt that they could not live on that then they should not have become a judge in the first place. And if you raise the salary to a million or two per year, what the highest paid attorneys make, then how do you determine who wants to become a judge for the responsibility from who in merely in it for the money?
3. There are some things in life that you don't price-shop. For instance, do you buy the cheapest birth control? How about the cheapest hair cut? Or, do you buy the cheapest tires? Well, I don't use the cheapest atty, and I sure as hell don't want to use bargain justices either.
You fly on the cheapest airplane that the airline could buy. You ride in a car built as cheaply as the manufacturer knew how. Our troops fight with equipment sold to the government by the lowest bidder. Less expensive is not necessarily second rate. Nor is more expensive necessarily better. John Edwards made millions as an attorney. Does that mean that he's a better choice for the bench than someone like John Robert who was, by your definition, a poorly paid appeals court justice before becoming Chief Justice?
Dear Non-Sequitur,
"You would have to convince a lot of people that incomes in the $160,000 to $200,000 range is 'low paid'. It provides a very nice lifestyle, far nicer that 95% of the people in this country enjoy."
It depends on where you live. If you're in the Washington metropolitan area, $160K - $200K is about what a two-income family, comprising a ocuple of GS-13 - 15s, makes.
So, that means a senior-level judge might have the income of a household with a couple of low- to mid-level government bureaucrat supervisors.
Yikes.
sitetest
What kind of bennies do Federal judges get? Are they similar to congresscritters? Free health care, salary for life, etc? The value of whatever bennies they get should be added to whatever the monetary pay is so the real amount of compensation could be known.
Personally, I think being a judge in this country is about as close to being God as one can get...
Works perfectly, if you want a bench full of egomaniacs. I, for one, don't.