In the niche I was in, everyone pretended it was about patriotism and national service. But if you looked at what actually drove the decisions, it was mostly about money, spiced up a little bit with vicarious violence.
I've worked in a few government agencies, some of them requiring security clearance, and my experience has been that for 99% of people I met it was about money, job security or pension plan. My family is knee deep military including service in most major conflicts and after WW2 it was never about service, just a way to make a living that was the best option on the table at the time. In fact I'd go so far as to say I've never met one person that join the public service for patriotism (outside of grandfathers signing up to kill Hitler). WW2 gets a special mention because it was the last war the west fought that actually risked our way of life. That was the last great cause, since then it has just been politics, money and corruption.
You dont have many suicidal friends on facebook do you?
I did in the first year, but that problem solved itself...
If we tried to make it the means, corporations would just find loopholes. First they'd hire outside contractors to mop the floors. Then they'd form companies to provide the service of executive management. "The lowest-paid employee at our company makes $1 million, so I can make $20 million!"
That sounds ok on the surface, but what would then happen is the service companies realise they wield some power, so start upping the charges to the parent company for basic services. What used to cost the parent $5/hour is now being charged out at $20/hour (even if the worker bees still only sees $5). The CEO is then under pressure to explain the rising cost of business. You then have two scenarios, companies that comply with the principle and raise the minimum wage, or greedy fat cats who persist with an ever expensive outsource model, which effectively redistributes wealth anyway, even if it is to the middle classes service companies rather the lower class worker bees. Both scenarios are an improvement over what we have now.
"If I do not want others to quote me, I do not speak." -- Phil Wayne