One might be led to wonder how our Senators and Congressmen increase their wealth during a period of their lives where they're being paid $200,000 a year and most maintain two homes, one in Washington and another in their home district. (A few sleep in their congressional offices, showering at the gym, and some rent inexpensive rooms at lovely mansions maintained by various special interest groups, in order to conserve funds -- read Sharlet, Jr., on this one.)
One wonders why a wealthy person will spend $10 million or $20 million or more of their own funds in an attempt to be elected to a job which pays $200,000 a year -- plus lifetime medical care and a few other goodies.
Part of the answer came a few weeks ago, when we learned that insider trading laws do not apply to Congress.
Another part came today in the form of an article in the Washington Post, entitled "Congressional earmarks sometimes used to fund projects near lawmakers' properties"
Interestingly, I think Land Value Taxation might largely "defang" this problem. Were we to be collecting the lion's share of the annual (monthly) value of all the sites in the U.S., we might begin to get some of the money out of politics. This is natural public revenue, and today we let individuals and corporations keep it for themselves, to our detriment
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