If I had hundreds of millions of dollars, I know exactly what I would buy. I’d buy a mansion, a Rolls-Royce and a U.S. Senator. Whoever said our democracy was ruled a majority of the population was wrong. Our current political system is indeed run by a majority, but a majority of wealth. And the majority of wealth is held by a very small minority, a minority who always seems to be fiercely protected by our democratic government. How else do you explain the massive jump in income for the wealthy during the past decades? Between 1979 and 2005, the top 1% richest Americans have seen their incomes increase by 228%, while the bottom 20% poorest Americans have only seen a 6% increase in their incomes. How have we as a society let this happen?
The answer: privately funded political campaigning. Political campaigning has become an expensive endeavor over the past few years. In 2004, a candidate for U.S. Senate spent on average almost $6 million to get elected. In all, candidates spent a total of $407 million dollars to campaign for senate seats. Where did they get all of this money? Most of this money comes from big companies who spend millions of dollars to ensure their candidate wins the election. This method of financing campaigns leads to government officials who represent companies and the wealthy rather than the American people.
But campaign contributions only account for a fraction of the money given to legislators by special interests. Plenty of money changes hands through the magic of lobbying. In 2008, a total of $3.3 BILLION was spent on lobbying. This money was spent specifically in an effort to influence decisions in the government. Wonder why pharmaceuticals cost so much and no one wants to socialize health insurance? The health sector (aka drug companies and HMOs) spent almost $500 million lobbying last year. This illustrates how small of a factor the public good has become in influencing national policy. The only way to be represented in congress is to buy your very own congressman, or, better yet, the entire Congress. The American government needs to go back to representing the people rather than the money.
