why is congress a millionaire's club?

[bcbm]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20075586-503544.html

[Blackburn]

For some reason the average Joe Blow I speak to thinks all Millionaires are hard working people who deserved every cent they earned off pure personal Labour.

It's such a bizzare myth, and it's so prevalent, that it's very difficult to counter in the minds of the ignorant.

[Le Socialiste]

Because Congress is essentially the political/governing arm of the capitalist-class? And all that 'you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" back-and-forth doesn't hurt, either. After all, it's no coincidence that there's practically a revolving door between Wall Street and Washington (D.C.)

[Reznov]

Because it takes that much money to raise support and maintain a staff to help constantly run your campaigns/events/meetings etc...?

That being said, could Communists in America be able to compete against such people who virtually control the country's entire wealth, and being ingrained with credit cards banking etc..., effectively control the population?

[Octavian]

The opposite of progress is congress.

[Belleraphone]

That's like asking why is water wet. The solution to this is to ban lobbying, obviously it wouldn't' solve all corruption and poverty, but even the conservative candidates that are voted in wouldn't be under pressure to bail out huge corporations.

[Catma]

This piece seems to be talking about the current wealth of those in office. I'd like to see data on their wealth before they were elected.

I suspect that while a fair amount of riches come from kickbacks, campaign contributions, and stuff like that, you generally have to be a well-off person in the first place. You have to run in certain social circles to be considered, for the most part, and people in those circles have no problems making money in the first place.

[RedSonRising]

That's like asking why is water wet. The solution to this is to ban lobbying, obviously it wouldn't' solve all corruption and poverty, but even the conservative candidates that are voted in wouldn't be under pressure to bail out huge corporations.

The problem with "banning" such a fundamental part of the system is that it just won't happen without an abolishment of the class system. "Banning" abuses against the people and "Mandating" the security of our basic needs and fundamental freedoms to control the decisions that affect are own lives simply won't get implemented because of the very structure of the system.

If things like that were feasible, reformism might have some more significant weight behind it, but it's inherent limits are obvious and have been proven over and over historically. You can't force a capitalist class to do something it doesn't want to with it's own purchased enforcement mechanism.

[RadioRaheem84]

For some reason the average Joe Blow I speak to thinks all Millionaires are hard working people who deserved every cent they earned off pure personal Labour.

It's such a bizzare myth, and it's so prevalent, that it's very difficult to counter in the minds of the ignorant.

Well they do work hard. They work hard getting other people to work harder for them.

That's what people don't see. Instead, they see a Malox drinking boss shuffling paper in his office, dealing with clients and managing the office, and think "wow, that guy works hard, I'd hate to be him, worrying about the company, I'm glad I'm just doing grunt work".

They think of mental labor as being far superior to physical labor and thus think do not realize that a lot of the work upper management and owners do is devising ways to raise productivity and keep labor costs down.

That is why people look up to millionaires and owners of industry, not realizing that they are the producers.

[Ocean Seal]

People think that millionaires made their money, and therefore if they can make money they can run our treasury. And yet they fail to consider that the millionaires won't necessarily have our best interests in sight.