The New York Times published a profile of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wednesday, the day after the midterm elections. In it, the 29-year-old former bartender and newly elected representative explained that moving from the expensive city of New York to the expensive city of Washington was going to be hard for myriad reasons; but logistically, with a three-month delay in her congressional salary staring her down, actually affording to relocate and rent an apartment might be one problem it might not have occurred to you that she would have.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said the transition period will be “very unusual, because I can’t really take a salary. I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real.” She said she saved money before leaving her job at the restaurant, and planned accordingly with her partner. “We’re kind of just dealing with the logistics of it day by day, but I’ve really been just kind of squirreling away and then hoping that gets me to January.”
This excerpt from the story was picked up and went viral, with Ocasio-Cortez herself using it to make a point.
For all of the bogus conservative memeing of how East Coast and West Coast elites are ruining government, the harsh fact of the matter is that both parties have been influenced by vast amounts of money, and the success of high-leveraged lobbying has led to some of the wealthiest Americans running for and winning elections. This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon. Some of the Founding Fathers believed that term limits were important not only because we didn’t want a monarchy, but because public service was supposed to be a civic duty, something one did and then went promptly back to till or manage their land.* The salaries of elected officials were supposed to be modest because they were for a temporary service to their fellow citizens. But now it’s a pretty good-paying job, with real big-money potential, through, let’s call it “networking.”
D.C. is by some metrics the second-most expensive city/state to live in, behind Hawaii, and right above California and New York. USA Today calls the D.C. area the ninth-most expensive city to live in in the U.S. Either way, people live where they get work. One reason that New York City’s insanely high rents are a big problem is that there are a ton of people there that work regular jobs, many making depressed wages, who need to live in those areas to continue to work.
Republican and Democratic senators and congressfolk alike have complained about the costs of living in D.C., with stories about elected officials sharing accommodations in order to save money. There are a few problems with these high costs. One, they make the promise of money from constituents in the private sector—a pay-to-play reality in our government— even more attractive. But more importantly, they are one of the reasons that bright young people, and people without a ton of means, do not run for higher office. It is not the only reason, but it is an important one.
All of this is to say that the cost of housing is a serious problem, one that people not being promised a six-figure salary like Ocasio-Cortez also face, across the country. We do not have to shed tears for Ocasio-Cortez, but she isn’t wrong. The percentage of Americans that rent instead of own their homes has risen to historic highs over the past decades. Rents have increased during that time, while wages and salaries have stagnated. Something has got to give, which is one of the many reasons the Republican Party is working so hard to take away our democracy. They can’t get the votes because they don’t represent the majority of people.
*The Founding Fathers were landowners, of course.