Factoids of the day:
1. 44% of Congressmen are millionaires.
2. Consistent with the “limousine liberals” stereotype, eight out of the ten richest are Democrats.
I wonder how much of this can be explained by the vast overrepresentation of lawyers in politics?
Correction: I initially assumed that these figures were only for the House. The true fraction is 237/535=44%, not 237/435=54%.
Nov 24 2009
Ronald Brownstein writes To save costs, Democrats mostly want to change the incentives for providers. Republicans mostly want to change the incentives for patients by shifting toward a model where insurance covers only catastrophic expenses and people pay for more routine care from tax-favored health savings accounts....
Nov 24 2009
This is my third post (see the first two here and here) on Levitt and Dubner's SuperFreakonomics. Chapter 3 is one of my favorite chapters in the book, for one main reason: the way it deals with the Kitty Genovese story. Those of you under 50 years old who have never taken a social psychology course might not know, b...
Nov 24 2009
Factoids of the day: 1. 44% of Congressmen are millionaires. 2. Consistent with the "limousine liberals" stereotype, eight out of the ten richest are Democrats.I wonder how much of this can be explained by the vast overrepresentation of lawyers in politics?Correction: I initially assumed that these figures ...
READER COMMENTS
George
Nov 24 2009 at 1:53pm
I think the 8-out-of-10-richest (and 4-out-of-5-richest) being Democrats explains why the list goes to 15, instead of the more usual 10. Instead of 80% D, it’s a more bipartisan-seeming 60%.
Blackadder
Nov 24 2009 at 3:35pm
My guess is that it has more to do with campaign finance reform.
Floccina
Nov 24 2009 at 3:38pm
Well and there is the fact some become millionaires after gaining political power.
agnostic
Nov 24 2009 at 3:41pm
The lawyer thing is right. Rich people are more likely to vote Republican, but it varies by profession. If I’m remembering correctly, lawyers are one of the groups (along with journalists) who Andrew Gelman says vote more liberal than their high income would predict.
If you looked at the leading businessmen, by contrast, you’d find more conservative rich people.
Hume
Nov 25 2009 at 6:41am
I wonder if this holds true on the state and local levels. Does personal and/or family wealth have a direct impact on the likelihood of obtaining local political power? What does this say about the representation theory of governmental authority?
Ryan Vann
Nov 25 2009 at 10:43am
Good question Hume, I’d wager that incomes scale in respect to the power of the office. So, your average mayor of Podunk Town, USA might be relatively rich compared to the inhabitants of said town, but are likely not as wealthy as say a Senator, Governor, or Mayor of a Metropolis.
As far as what the representation theory implications would be, it would add more ammunition to the critics of the theory. I personally think it is a bit of a farce.
Comments are closed.