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Seeking political office is asking for punishment. The media can be brutal. A small slice of the general population will be haters no matter what and in absolut

Seeking political office is asking for punishment. The media can be brutal. A small slice of the general population will be haters no matter what and in absolute numbers that's a lot of people that hate you. Billionaires can insulate themselves from this brutality and may have some experience with it already. Non-billionaires can't, and so it's just not worth it to run for office unless you care more about power than about yourself and your family. Not saying that billionaires are great politicians or anything, but it certainly makes sense. If we want something better we need more civilized discourse.

alpha_squared 3y ago
> The media can be brutal. "The media" can also be pretty favorable in practically any set of loosely held beliefs you want to cobble together into a campaign. You'll find some platform willing to give you a mic to espouse the ideology with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink to working closer together once you accumulate power. I'm skeptical that tying politics and wealth in any form leads to a good outcome.
- chmod600 3y ago
  Favorable in that they may support your acquisition of power. Almost never favorable at a human or family level. So if all you care about power, they media is a great ally. If you also have ordinary human desires, like not having a constant mob of haters saying horrible things to you and your family, then the media is not great. In other words, the media filters out most normal people from politics by the sheer horrribleness of the process.
bobthepanda 3y ago
It also costs money to be a politician. Billionaires are able to loan to their campaigns pretty heavily, Michael Bloomberg loaned himself $65M to get re-elected as NYC mayor in 2009. There’s no political expenditure cap in the US and media slots are not cheap. Meanwhile first term congressmen that were poor have trouble finding housing in DC. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141635119/the-first-gen-z-member-of-congress-was-denied-a-d-c-apartment-due-to-bad-credit https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141635119/the-first-gen-z-me...
PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
Ross Perot is a perfect example of this in action.

alpha_squared 3y ago

> The media can be brutal. "The media" can also be pretty favorable in practically any set of loosely held beliefs you want to cobble together into a campaign. You'll find some platform willing to give you a mic to espouse the ideology with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink to working closer together once you accumulate power. I'm skeptical that tying politics and wealth in any form leads to a good outcome.

chmod600 3y ago
Favorable in that they may support your acquisition of power. Almost never favorable at a human or family level. So if all you care about power, they media is a great ally. If you also have ordinary human desires, like not having a constant mob of haters saying horrible things to you and your family, then the media is not great. In other words, the media filters out most normal people from politics by the sheer horrribleness of the process.

bobthepanda 3y ago

It also costs money to be a politician. Billionaires are able to loan to their campaigns pretty heavily, Michael Bloomberg loaned himself $65M to get re-elected as NYC mayor in 2009. There’s no political expenditure cap in the US and media slots are not cheap. Meanwhile first term congressmen that were poor have trouble finding housing in DC. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141635119/the-first-gen-z-member-of-congress-was-denied-a-d-c-apartment-due-to-bad-credit https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141635119/the-first-gen-z-me...

PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago

Ross Perot is a perfect example of this in action.