Back to the original topic, I think the op article was not really a good example. 900K avg net worth?
Indeed, within the halls of Congress, where the median net worth is $913,000 and climbing, he is not. He is a rank-and-file millionaire. But compared with the country at large, where the median net worth is $100,000 and has dropped significantly since 2004, he and most of his fellow lawmakers are true aristocrats.
Average age of Congress is 55-60. I don't think comparing that to the general population (all ages) is valid. Alot of people I know in their 50s and 60s could be close to 1mil in net worth, house + retirement savings. Not all that rich really. I'm probably about 1/2 way there in my 50s. And I'm pretty average.
Not that there aren't wealthy people in Congress- Pelosi, Kerry etc. Its not the average though according to the article.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
I think that the real point is that our elected 'representatives', due largely to the fact that they are so much better off than most of their constituents, and have a completely different lifestyle than most of their constituents, are completely out of touch with those who they are supposed to be representing. Even assuming that they cared about representing their constituents, or were interested in what is best for the country, rather than their own power/prestige/wealth, they live in a different world.
Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again - Jeanne Pincha-Tulley
Comprehensive is Latin for there is lots of bad stuff in it - Trey Gowdy
jf1acai wrote: I think that the real point is that our elected 'representatives', due largely to the fact that they are so much better off than most of their constituents, and have a completely different lifestyle than most of their constituents, are completely out of touch with those who they are supposed to be representing. Even assuming that they cared about representing their constituents, or were interested in what is best for the country, rather than their own power/prestige/wealth, they live in a different world.
And I don't believe any of them care about us anymore. None of them. Right/left/independent/socialist/progressive... whatever.
"When Representative Ed Pastor was first elected to Congress two decades ago, he was comfortably ensconced in the middle class. Mr. Pastor, a Democrat from Arizona, held $100,000 or so in savings accounts in the mid-1990s and had a retirement pension, but like many Americans, he also owed the banks nearly as much in loans.
Today, Mr. Pastor, a miner’s son and a former high school teacher, is a member of a not-so-exclusive club: Capitol Hill millionaires. That group has grown in recent years to include nearly half of all members of Congress — 250 in all — and the wealth gap between lawmakers and their constituents appears to be growing quickly, even as Congress debates unemployment benefits, possible cuts in food stamps and a “millionaire’s tax.”
CBS news (I think it was anyway) last night had a story on something similiar. It is not surprizing either.
