More than 11% of the world’s more than 2,000 billionaires have run for election or become politicians, according to a study highlighting the growing power and influence of the super-wealthy.
While billionaires have had mixed success at the ballot box in the U.S., billionaires around the world have a “strong track record” of winning elections and “lean to the Right ideologically,” said the study, which is by three professors at Northwestern University.
“Billionaire politicians are a shockingly common phenomenon,” the study said. “The concentration of massive wealth in the hands of a tiny elite has understandably caused many observers to worry that the ‘super-rich have super-sized political influence.’”
Modern billionaires tended to be the power behind the throne until recently. Politicians themselves might be wealthy, but not billionaire wealthy.
Per OpenSecrets.org, Nancy Pelosi has an estimated networth of $115M, Mitch McConnell $34M, and Kevin McCarthy $0.223M. Richest is Mark Warner at $214M. There are several members of Congress with negative networth.
Even McCarthy’s number sounds like a lot of money to many Americans–median US networth is just under $0.2M–but none of them have the kind of filthy rich status of billionaires. The way money works at the billionaire level is fundamentally disconnected from humanity.