Political Discussion

Random thought, but it still baffles me that most politicians are millionaires or otherwise very well off. The idea of a wealthy public servant feels like the world's biggest F you and an oxymoron. The moment you come into money you are immediately out of touch with the very people you are supposed to be fighting for.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Random thought, but it still baffles me that most politicians are millionaires or otherwise very well off. The idea of a wealthy public servant feels like the world's biggest F you and an oxymoron. The moment you come into money you are immediately out of touch with the very people you are supposed to be fighting for.
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And when you get relatively “normal” middle class politicians like AOC, who tended bar prior being elected to Congress, they are constantly mocked and belittled for having working class roots.
 
This is fun reading for any economics nerds out there.

Taking oligopoly seriously in macroeconomics | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal

The dominance of Big Tech and other ‘superstar’ firms’ has put market power back on the agenda of politicians, as well as in research. But although oligopoly markets have been introduced in macroeconomic and trade models, this is mostly in the context of a very large ‘continuum’ of sectors such...
voxeu.org voxeu.org
 
Bohnjaggs said:
First in line for meatballs this morning

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They're waiting for the same ride.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Random thought, but it still baffles me that most politicians are millionaires or otherwise very well off. The idea of a wealthy public servant feels like the world's biggest F you and an oxymoron. The moment you come into money you are immediately out of touch with the very people you are supposed to be fighting for.
Click to expand...
So I've been reading some econ history and it turns out that Adam Smith was largely against career politicians. And if you want to go back even further, the Athenians ended up reverting to a total democratic system after overturning an oligarchy around 400 BCE. They believed that political offices should only be part time at best--much like our founding fathers.

As Smith notes in The Wealth of Nations, one of the major obstacles to free markets is the alliance of political leaders and particular businessmen. He condemns laws "which the clamor of our merchants and manufacturers has extorted from the legislature, for the support of their own absurd and oppressive monopolies." (WN IV.viii.17)

Five Lessons for Politicians on the Anniversary of Adam Smith's Death | Caroline Breashears

Yesterday I tossed money onto Adam Smith's grave. I was not the first to do so, nor will I be the last, especially as we near the anniversary of his death: July 17, 1790.
fee.org

Athenians (very long): Athenian Democracy: a brief overview

Most of our career politicians get rich from insider trading. This was the latest scandal:
The 2020 congressional insider trading scandal was a political scandal in the United States involving members of the United States Senate due to multiple Senators allegedly violating the STOCK Act by selling stock at the start of COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and just before the coronavirus correction on February 20, 2020, using knowledge given to them at a closed Senate meeting. The Department of Justice initiated a probe into the stock transactions on March 30, 2020, but ended the probe on May 26, 2020, for all senators except Richard Burr, who has since[when?] been served multiple search warrants.
en.wikipedia.org

2020 congressional insider trading scandal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

But 60 minutes did a piece on Nancy Pelosi's insider trading in 2012:


She's far from the only one. These people are put on political councils that chose who the US Government will contract to do or build us things, and often use this knowledge to beef up their portfolios. This problem gets compounded when personal profits get in the way of choosing the best contractors; and then again if regulatory laws are getting in the way of personal profits. It's a really big problem that is affecting the efficacy of our elected officials.
 
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