For the man (or woman) who has everything

There are a number of news reports from major newspaper blogs and independent bloggers documenting how wealthy U.S. Senators and Congressmen are.  Perhaps the best single source of such information is via Opensecrets.org, an independent watchdog, where you not only get a list of wealthiest congressmen and senators, but you can even look up via a PDF database the wealth of ANY congressman or senator.  Because this information is so available, I won't bother repeating that list.  While distressing in and of itself, I have more interesting election season food for thought.

I want to draw your attention to a list of the ten most expensive SELF-FUNDED candidates for U.S. Senator and U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.  The list, shown below, was also obtained from http://opensecrets.org/.  These are the most recent totals as of this writing, a few days before election day:

House Candidates

Flinn, George S Jr (R) (Tennessee District 08)	$3,500,000
Rigell, Scott (R) (Virginia District 02)	$2,424,364
DelBene, Suzan (D) (Washington District 08)	$2,284,033
Ganley, Tom (R) (Ohio District 13)	$2,213,417
Altschuler, Randy (R) (New York District 01)	$2,010,213
Hartman, Wink (R) (Kansas District 04)	$1,995,025
Doheny, Matt (R) (New York District 23)	$1,690,000
Iott, Rich (R) (Ohio District 09)	$1,673,100
D'Annunzio, Tim (R) (North Carolina District 08)	$1,397,445
Moise, Rudolph (D) (Florida District 17)	$1,386,540

Senate Candidates

McMahon, Linda (R) (Connecticut Senate)	$46,600,161
Greene, Jeff (D) (Florida Senate)	$23,788,077
Johnson, Ron (R) (Wisconsin Senate)	$8,238,465
Pagliuca, Steve (D) (Massachusetts Senate)	$7,590,643
Binnie, William H (R) (New Hampshire Senate)	$6,587,594
Fiorina, Carly (R) (California Senate)	$5,511,080
Raese, John R (R) (West Virginia Senate)	$2,358,240
Blumenthal, Richard (D) (Connecticut Senate)	$2,269,607
Lowden, Sue (R) (Nevada Senate)	$1,939,065
Malpass, David (R) (New York Senate)	$1,600,500

Again, the amount of money spent by these candidates is only what they decided to spend out of their own pocket, and yes, these are DEEP pockets.  WEALTHY pockets.  These totals do not include contributions from anyone else. 

I am not taking sides in any of these races.  There's no point.   But I will vote, because too many people suffered and died for me to not use the privilege to vote while we still have it.  I invite you to google each of these people on the list and read about what they did before deciding to run for public office.  For example:

• Linda McMahon, wife of Vince McMahon, majority owners of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the billion-dollar corporation, spent $15 million of her own money just to win the Republican nomination for Senator of Connecticut.  She now also spent an additional $46 million to win the seat on Election Day.  It's also of interest that her Democratic opponent, Richard Blumenthal, a long-time Attorney General in Connecticut, is also on the list, spending $2 million of his own money.
• George Flinn is, among other things, the President of Flinn Broadcasting in Tennessee.  Flinn Broadcasting owns a network of radio stations, mostly in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi, but also in California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, and Missouri.  He, like Linda McMahon, has amassed substantial wealth.  However, while the leading out-of-pocket spender for a congressional seat, his $3.5 million did not win his party's nomination. 

I could go on and on, and you are free to look up any or all of these names on this list. 
Four things all of these people have in common: 

1. They are very wealthy, successful businesspeople.  Duh.
2. Because they are all successful businesspeople: they have a talent/skill for recognizing a good investment, and for knowing what expenses are worth the return on investment. None of them became wealthy throwing money around without a vision of how that investment would make them even more money and wealth in the long run. 
3. They felt it was worthwhile for them to spend millions of dollars to get elected.  
4. If they manage to get elected, their salary as a U.S. Senator or Representative will be $174,000 per year.

So, knowing these are all successful businesspeople, with good business sense, why would any of them think it good business sense to spend MILLIONS of their own money for a job which pays $174,000 per year?  It would typically take each of these candidates 10 years or more just to break even, not considering any expenses for getting re-elected (a Congressman's term is 2 years, a Senator's is 6 years).  I always thought that if you had to spend MORE to GET THE JOB than the job PAID, it was not financially worthwhile to get that job. You'd be better off to have no income versus losing money trying to get a job, any job. That's why working moms opt to become stay-at-home moms, because the cost of daycare is about equal to their salary.  So why do these savvy businesspeople think it's worthwhile to spend ten to fifty times the annual salary to get this job?

Clearly, these people are not running for public office for the paycheck --IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY.  Maybe they want to do something to help the average American in their district or state?  If you believe that, you should consider getting yourself into rehab asap.

These very wealthy people oddly have a huge DISADVANTAGE when it comes to trying to help the average American.  Specifically, they do not have a clue about your NEEDS, or your PROBLEMS, or how difficult it has become to live a middle-class life style, let alone understand the woes of the poor.  They don't have to shop for the best deals to save a few bucks, they hire someone to do that for them.  They don't cook, they don't clean their toilets, and they don't worry about their job being outsourced.  They don't worry about how they can afford to take care of their aging parents AND get their children through college.  They don't worry about their pension being stolen by the company they worked hard for. They don't worry about having to choose between eating human food AND paying for their prescription.  They don't worry about making the mortgage payment, or the car payment.  They don't worry about their neighbors having hard times and losing THEIR homes, which causes neighborhood housing values to fall, and with it, their nest egg breaks and spills into the gutter.  They don't worry about their credit rating.

These people can afford to put their kids in any school that will take them, they are not affected by public schools not having enough money to pay all the teachers or to keep all the schools open.  These people ALWAYS have much MORE money than month.  These people no longer have to work in the sense we do, in order to make money.  These people can afford to spend millions to get elected and then hesitate to give to the local homeless shelter.  These very wealthy people do not feel your pain any more than you or I feel the pain of a cockroach we shower with bug spray from a distance, and then walk away.  These very wealthy people live on a different plane of existence from you and I.  Your vote is more important to them than you ever will be, and once you've voted, your existence is of little consequence.  They no longer send their sons and daughters off to fight wars, because it has become the task of the "have-nots" to defend the American way of life for the "haves."

And such is the sad truth, they pretend to care, say a few "feel good" catch phrases, bashing what their (often) wealthy opponent has said or done, but never committing to do anything positive to help the average American.  For these people, getting elected is Job One.  The return on their investment is not in that $174,000 per year paycheck, nor in the satisfaction of having done something to improve the lives of average Americans.  The return on investment, their profit, what they get out of getting into that position of power is that they can pursue an agenda which best serves their own business enterprise.  Maybe it's a matter of "deregulation,"  or perhaps a "tax-incentive" for certain industries.  Maybe it's the influence they can now sell to "special interests" which may be several times their salary as a Senator or Congressman. 

So what do you get for the man (or woman) who has everything?  Sorry, it was a trick question... there's nothing you can give them.  What they want they are in the process of taking for themselves -- ever greater power combined with ever decreasing accountability.