Somebody Buy Her A Hamburger, Quick!

Pretty sure Hillary Clinton’s idea of “dead broke” is entirely different from mine

Beware, everybody!  It's another timely political rant by Jeremy.  I can see some of you reaching for the remote, but this is a website, so you're stuck with it.  Hopefully, it'll be entertaining.  

It's a well known fact that I'm a genius.  That said, I'm not rich.  Based on a study I just made up, I make less money than the average genius, but based on the the Wikipedia article on household income, I make more than the median American.  I'll call that something of a victory.  But, returning to the main premise...I'm not rich.  

Politicians are rich.   

In order to even get yourself elected to congress, you have to be able to raise and manage a substantial amount of money, and a majority of the time, that comes from a lifetime of being wealthy.  In fact, the average net worth of congressmen in 2011 was $7.8 million dollars.  

My net worth...less than that.  

Let's also talk pensions.  Congress has a pension fund for members with at least 5 years of service.  That's less than one term for Senators, and 3 for Representatives.  The amount they receive is based on a complicated formula that takes into account time of service and many other factors, but it ends up somewhere between $50,000 and $80,000 per year.  For doing nothing.  The median American doesn't make that much for working for a living ($29,000).  The pension for a President of the United States is currently a little over $191,000 per year, or 6.5x the median household income for everyone else. 

Let's be clear: these facts by themselves don't bother me.  

Our elected officials should be among the best people our society has to offer.  They need to be able to manage vast sums of money and enormous groups of people.  They need to be able to see a bigger picture than most of us can even conceive, and do it while constantly being berated by the other political side for having slightly conflicting views on the grand political spectrum.  It's a tough and largely thankless job, and they should be compensated for it.  And they are...handsomely.  In addition to countless other money-making opportunities they have at their disposal outside of their public service positions.  

So, when Hilary Clinton, whose husband's net worth was approximately 38 Million Dollars when he left office describes herself as being "dead broke," I have an issue.  Here is a person with a law degree from an Ivy-League college, whose family will be provided a 6-figure pension income for life, with a daughter in an Ivy-League college, commanding multi-thousand dollar appearance fees just for showing up someplace and reading a prepared speech...and she's describing herself as "dead broke?"  I don't think so.  

There is an awful lot of talk circling around politics about how the representatives are out of touch with the constituents.  This is a prime example of it.  We should all be so fortunate to be as dead broke as she was.