‘It’s all about the money.’
That’s what a friend said to me about the US elections. ‘Celebrity and money’ He said dismissively as he took a pensive sip on his Earl Grey.
An avid follower of the elections knows that there is a lot of substance behind the circus though… but money does talk, and here’s why.
The American political system doesn’t seem to be that accommodating to those with limited means. Data from 2006 showed that the average wealth of a member of the House of Representatives is around $5 million (£2.7 million) and for the Senate, it’s over $10 million (£5.4 million).
(In the interests of fairness, it's right to point out that, 21 of the 488 of those who sit in the lower House have so little money, that their net wealth is in the negative.)
The amount of money floating round among the American political elite is huge... well that's the perception at least.
By August this year, Barack Obama and John McCain had managed to raise $693,182,851 between them towards their respective election campaigns. Of that amount though, Obama raised $468,841,840, almost double that of Johnny.
There are around 142,000,000 registered voters in America. So.... a vote for one of the main candidates is worth around $4.80, that’s the average amount that would have been spent by the big two, per voter, to win support.
If I was voting in this election, I'd kinda like to think my vote was worth a little more than $4.80. But maybe I'm just not that special.
1 comment:
Was Ben by any chance that Earl Grey sipper?
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