America: Land of Opportunity or Land of the Wealthy?

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This disillusionment sentiment experienced by American society towards its wealth biased government is substantiated as many members are wealthy or has direct ties to wealth, perpetuating the trend of income inequality through policymaking. The legislative branch of the government, or the branch that is directly involved in policymaking and lawmaking is populated by various members of massive wealth that represents many sectors of the economy that had a hand in the financial collapse of 2007 and 2008. As a whole, the members of Congress are undeniably more wealthy than the constituents that they represent in the government. In 2012, the “median wage” for a member of the Senate was around $2.7 million dollars and the average wealth for a representative of the House was around $600,000. While the members of Congress are substantially wealthier than ordinary Americans, some members of Congress are more affluent than others due to previous endeavours before politics. The wealthiest member of Congress in 2012 was Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, with a net worth of around $600 million, shadowing the second wealthiest member of Congress, Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia with the net worth of $418 million (“Net Worth”). This is in stark contrast with the average GDP, or gross domestic product, of an America, which is about $52,000. The extreme disparity between the net worth of multimillionaire representatives and the average American demonstrates that Congress is more inclined to make laws favoring themselves than less prosperous, and in turn widening the income inequality gap. As a result of obtaining extravagant wealth, many “lawmakers seem to have a stake in big-name, recognizable companies and properties,” which fa...

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