Those who saw Meet the Press today were treated to a rare act of journalism.
Meet the Press Transcript - December 7, 2014
CHUCK TODD:
Nerd screen time about Congress and wealth. The majority of Americans, of course, think members of Congress are out of touch with average citizens. 81%, according to Gallup's most recent survey. In fact, average Americans don't think members of Congress understand their needs or concerns.
And that members of Congress are too beholden to special interests. Well, there's a big reason why our representatives here in Washington appear to have a hard time relating to most of you. And it starts with a massive wealth gap. Let's take a look at the numbers. First of all, members of Congress make a lot more money than the average American.
Typical household income, $54,000 annually. The annual salary for each member of Congress, it's nearly $175,000, three times as much. And oh, by the way, that's not household income. This doesn't include spousal income. You included that, it's even much higher. Not surprisingly, members of Congress are also doing better than average Americans when it comes to seeing their wealth grow.
On average, media net worth for average Americans grew just under 4% annually from 2004 to 2012. In that same period of time, members of Congress saw their income increase at a 15% clip annually. The result? By 2013, the average 55 to 65 year old, that's about the average age of a member of Congress, had a net worth of just over $165,000.
And that includes real estate holdings. The average net worth for a member of Congress? Just over a million dollars. And that does not include real estate holdings. They don't have to report that on their forms. If they did, that number would even be higher.
Members of Congress? Over half of them, remember there are 535 of them, over half of them are millionaires. So you wonder why the economy, income inequity, all of these issues, you don't feel like Congress quite understands the urgency of it, this is all you need to know. Half of them are millionaires.
The death of working-class politics: How the wealthy conquered Congress and abandoned blue-collar America
As Congress gets richer and richer, research proves that it's leaving the rest of us behind
By Sean McElwee
Congress is rich. The average net worth in Congress is a bit more than $6 million, while the median net worth is $1 million. To put that in context, $4 million in net worth is enough to put someone in the top 1 percent, and $660,000 is enough to put an individual in the top 10 percent. Meanwhile, the median family wealth for whites is $134,000 and for blacks is $11,000. Emerging political science research suggests that the implications of this class bias are profound and important.
Political scientists have long debated the importance of “descriptive representation” or “reflective democracy.” Reflective democracy means that representatives share salient characteristics with their constituents. Most political scientists now agree that reflective representation leads to better substantive representation: that the interests of constituents are being reflected by legislator choice.
It’s increasingly clear that descriptive representation matters, particularly as related to race and gender.
While descriptive representation of women and people of color has increased dramatically, the descriptive representation of working-class people has remained stubbornly flat
As Carnes writes,
If millionaires were a political party, that party would make up roughly 3 percent of American families, but it would have a super-majority in the Senate, a majority in the House, a majority on the Supreme Court and a man in the White House. If working-class Americans were a political party, that party would have made up more than half the country since the start of the 20th century. But legislators from that party (those who last worked in blue-collar jobs before entering politics) would never have held more than 2 percent of the seats in Congress.
Michael Kraus and Bennett Callaghan find that rich members of the House are more likely to accept high levels of inequality than less rich members. The effect is particularly strong on Democrats (see chart).
A Mother Jones investigation finds that the 10 richest members of Congress (a bipartisan group) all voted to extend the Bush tax cuts.
Given this, should we worry that more than half of all members of the House of Representatives are millionaires? Further, while two-thirds of the population don’t have a college degree, only two House members (Robert Brady of Pennsylvania and Stephen Fincher of Tennessee) and one senator (outgoing Mark Begich of Alaska) lack one.
As Congress becomes more gender and racially diverse it remains a preserve of the economic and education elites.
As the Democratic Party increasingly moves to the center to please an elite donor base, the last hope for action on economic inequality might be more blue-collar politicians.
As Class Divisions and their resulting inequality became a critically important issue for tens of millions of American households, the economic elites' grip on 'our' congress grows ever stronger. The congress' preoccupation with catering to the needs of millionaires (like lowering estate taxes) has made the Congress one of the most despised and distrusted institutions in America.
Noblesse Oblige? Social Status and Economic Inequality Maintenance among Politicians
In the first half of the 19th century of for any American politician to be seen as a member of the wealthy elite was the kiss of death. To be born in a log cabin was seen as the ideal background for those with political ambitions. Americans had a healthy distrust of wealthy elites.
We need some of that healthy distrust of wealth elites back.