In my short note that I inserted into Kevin Corcoran’s recent thoughts on the political system, I pointed out that although there is strong overlap between the rich and the politically powerful, they are not the same.
This requires elaboration.
The best way to do it is to come up with counterexamples.
Here’s an example of someone who had enormous wealth in the late 1990s but little political power: Bill Gates. I wrote about it at the time in the now-defunct Silicon Valley magazine Red Herring. Microsoft, which Gates owned a large share of, had no substantial presence in Washington, D.C. at the time the Justice Department went after Microsoft. Microsoft’s main presence was in a different Washington, Washington state. That meant that he could count on only 2 out of 100 U.S. Senators to run interference for him with the Clinton Justice Department. Gates and Microsoft had great wealth but little political power. And they paid for it. By the way, he didn’t make that mistake again.
An example of someone with a fair amount of political power but relatively little wealth is U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema. She is the swing vote in an equally divided Senate and she can use her power to extract important concessions in legislation. Her net worth is estimated to be about $1 million. That’s wealthy in the grand scheme of things, especially given her relative youth, but it’s not great wealth.
Consider another example: Martin Luther King, Jr. When his political influence was at its peak, from about 1963 to his murder in 1968, his wealth was relatively modest.
Of course, there’s a huge overlap between wealth and political power. Picture a Venn diagram with a large intersection. But there are many counterexamples in both directions.
READER COMMENTS
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Aug 12 2022 at 1:19pm
The combined net worth of the Jan 6 insurrectionists was probably not great, but they almost overturned an election.
Kevin Corcoran
Aug 12 2022 at 3:09pm
This is a good point. One side effect of the government attempting to “soak the rich” is to provide the rich with extra incentives to use their wealth to influence the political process when before they might have simply gone about their business. Of course, I’m not saying that’s the only reason the rich attempt to wield political influence, but it is one reason. How many wealthy people saw how the government went after Microsoft in the 90s and resolved to ensure they wouldn’t be next, not by reducing their market share, but by upping their political “investments”? I don’t know the answer, but I have no doubt that it happened.
BC
Aug 12 2022 at 3:36pm
The richest people are the ones with the most wealth, by definition. Similarly, the most politically powerful people are by definition the people most able to gain benefits from and avoid costs of government policies. Then, at the federal level, the most politically powerful people include Social Security and Medicare recipients and the 47% of workers that pay no income tax. That latter group includes many people that aren’t wealthy by any (developed world) measure.
Now, one might be tempted to claim that the no-tax status of the 47% arises from the support of the general voting public, which may have much sympathy for their generally lower incomes. True, sympathy can be a source of political power, but that only reinforces that such sympathetic group is politically powerful. It’s like saying that Bill Gates acquired his wealth by producing valuable software for customers. While true, it doesn’t change the fact that he is wealthy.
David Seltzer
Aug 12 2022 at 6:04pm
Fidel Castro was a failed baseball player with little wealth. His appeal to the dispossessed helped him overthrow US military backed dictator, Fulgencio Bautista. Later, Castro acquired wealth from taxes and the people he imprisoned.
Fred
Aug 13 2022 at 11:43am
Bill Gates has chosen not to use his wealth for direct political clout. It is not that he could not. He has made a decision. I’m sure that several politicians of various stripes have appealed to him. Some rich people seem to enjoy the political hurly-burly.
It is true that some people without wealth have political power. My vote counts as much as Bill Gates’.
vince
Aug 14 2022 at 4:06pm
With confidence I can say Bill Gates has more political power than me. It’s not the same as 1 person 1 vote.
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