44% of Congress are millionaires
Published November 16, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
And we wonder why Congress can't pass bills to support low-income households and working people...ok, we don't really wonder, do we?
1% of Americans are millionaires, compared to 44% of Congress (237 elected officials, to be exact). The median income in the Senate is just under $2M, in the House it's just over $600k. Median household income in the US is $50,303.
Just because an individual is rich does not preclude them from pursuing pro-poor or equitable policies, nor does it suggest that they cannot relate to poverty or economic inequality. But when the group norm is staggering wealth compared to the typical American, including in countless districts these officials represent, then it is understandably difficult to consider or develop policies that truly address economic hardship. Add to this wealth disparity the reality that 9 in 10 House incumbents and 8 in 10 Senate incumbents are re-elected each election year, and my despair over Congressional legislation benefiting the average American certainly deepens.
I hear from political insiders that nothing is more important in running for election than a person's ability to raise money. Forget your political views, your commitment to social equity, your desire to make a difference. If you're not rich or you don't know rich people who can bankroll your campaign, it's over before you've begun. Yes, we need to keep putting progressive candidates up for election, and we need to diversify the ranks of political leadership along racial, gender and certainly class lines. But how can we do that, when we're up against the nation's economic elite? Maybe our Average Joe VP, who's net worth is $27,000, has some advice.
(Original graph of House incumbency trends here at the Center for Responsive Politics)
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Comments (5)
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Author
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Leigh is a PhD candidate in urban planning at MIT, and a consultant on U.S. Gulf Coast recovery. She sits on the Board of the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation in Boston, and has worked with non-profits, foundations and local governments on policies and programs aimed at reducing urban poverty and inequality.
Its fixed. The font seems smaller than usual, but I can post. The comment box is visible. Thank You Web master or whom ever fixed the problem of the past week!
MATH LIES,
Why don't the Mainstream media Run these stories, as often as they tell us who wins the football game? Then just maybe the 70% of the poor might join forces, and tell the Congress just what we need.
I was thinking about the $50,303 being the median income. With the millionaires, and well paid CEO say ($500,000 half a million) before bonuses. Lets take an easy number like 100. If two of the 10 is a millionaires, this year they have eraned 21 million and 2 million the rest has $20,000 a year each the bottom tier shares just under $2 million ($1,9600,000)
Add 23 and 2 million together, then divide by 2 the median income. This is not sufficated math. So it seems way over what 98% of the people make say $50,303 down from 2008, but its down because the top rung the elite lost their investment. But $27,000 a year is thought of as good pay-when it hardly pays the rent.
And yet this 44% of millionaires thinks they or on overpaid think tank can redefine poverty. You are correct Leigh America needs some Poor people on that panel to devise a new formula, for the new Poverty Level.
As a livable wage varies from state to state, I expect even if the rate is set at $18,000 for one, or two, that will still leave 23.3% of the poor- those making under the real livable wage, bickering with other poor folks, rather than joining together against Corporations and Government.
See what one small group wants to do about poverty www.hospitalityhouseofmaine.org.
Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 11/16/2009 @ 10:54AM PT
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If these numbers alone don't scream of basal corruption in the government, what does? Consider also that Congress wrote and approved their own healthcare system funded by our taxes without our approval & that we aren't allowed to participate in. Try doing that in the company you work for & it will most likely land you in jail for embezzlement.
Something's rotten in the land of the free-to-be-homeless and the home of the bravely underrepresented.
Posted by Fred Frankenberg on 11/16/2009 @ 12:09PM PT
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Yes Fred. This unrepresentedd Person is trying to get back a drivers license. I lost without a hearing.The insurance Company won Imagine that. I am progressing without an attorney can not afford one.
Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 11/17/2009 @ 08:52AM PT
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Talk about a nation with a split personality, and who does not get it-
New York Times: "American Workers Are Overpaid"
the New York Times concluded last weekthat the real problem is "American workers are overpaid." The paper's prominent "BreakingViews.Com" column broke this astonishing news.
Randy Shaw is the author of Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.
Millionaires are not capable of understanding "underpaid" workers
Posted by jan Lightfootlane on 11/18/2009 @ 03:14PM PT
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American workers are overpaid? Overpaid compared to what? to whom? that lives where?!? Certainly not overpaid for living HERE and trying to SURVIVE without assistance...
I grew up surrounded by the UFW fight. The living and working conditions were deplorable - and to expect someone to do that for the wages offered SHOULD HAVE BEEN unconscionable...instead it was common practice. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is the common practice in MOST "American" industries - do whatever can be legally done (even if it flaunts the intent of the law) to cut corners even if it breaks unions and makes the workplace less safe to bring down costs and ESPECIALLY to bring down LABOR costs. They even abuse Visa programs to do this - ignoring perfectly qualified CITIZENS who would love to work.
The problem isn't "overpaid" American workers. The problem is overly greedy American employers and an American government that refuses to provide benefits made freely available by most other "civilized" or "western" nations. Benefits like health care that are instead placed upon the backs of businesses and their employees...
Posted by Danetta Amschler on 11/19/2009 @ 02:30AM PT
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