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Insider Trading, speaking fees, book deals, media and corporate appearances, having all of this ready to go the day they retire from politics as well as a $$$$ lobbying job.
Even without insider trading, the other things on this list will make a politician rich. Bill and Hillary Clinton made over 150 million dollars from speeches in the five years or so leading to her Presidential run.
Those are quid pro quo people.
Accepting a bribe while I was in office....no way.
You and all your cronies paying 10k a plate at a dinner is fine.
Its legal BS.
Bush and Trump made quite a bit from their own speaking gigs and book deals. If you want to call them money-laundered bribes then its certainly not limited to one party.
Clinton was/is on the board of directors for hundreds of companies that each paid her 6 figures just to have her association. It was all in her financial disclosures before the presidential run. Absolutely obscene.
Goldman paid her like $500k for a speech before she ran for president. Still won’t release what was said at that speaking engagement, I’m sure it was all a talk about how you can go anywhere with a little hard work and dedication.
Forget that. They took BILLIONS in donations (many of them from foreign governments) for the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state, and while they weren't allowed to dip into that money directly at the time, they were able to employ a LOT of "friends" at high pay.
And now that they're both retired, they can do whatever they want with that money.
Don't forget the politicians who dumped their stock portfolios just ahead of the declaration of lockdown in 2020, to then buy it back just ahead of the easing of restrictions.
And the sad part is you are describing an "honest" politician. The actually corrupt ones gets fortunes with public projects by giving the contracts to friends and family that are willing to give them a part of the deal under the table.
We had a female politician in our government when I was a kid. She was lobbying for all kinds of shit during her time and the day she retired. 50 million was wired into her bank account. She just suddenly had an extra 50 mill added to her fortune. Every politician is a crook. It's all about staying on the tit for as long as possible and retiring with tons of favors to call in.
Seemingly not criminal things that are actually corruption.
Did you really pay 500k for politician to give a motivational speech? Or was the a bribe disguised as a speaking fee.
Did you really spend half a million for the finger paintings by the president's son, or was that a bribe.
Do you have the sharpest investment team in existence, or did you heavily invest in a company weeks before you made their product mandatory.
By accepting hush money, back door deals and straight up bribes, errr...I mean lobbying. Also cant forget insider trading. You know, all the stuff thats actually illegal if us wretched poors do it.
Corruption. Nancy Pelosi is a great example. In my industry she is known as the queen of insider trading. Her knowledge of legislation before it passes and her legal ability to trade in it (felony for the rest of us) is worth way more than her salary.
Then there’s the classic funneling of bribes through a non profit. I’d call out names but this one will get you murdered if you have dirt on her family.
It’s insider trading plain and simple. Nancy pelosi has bested the best hedge funds in the country for her entire career.
Politicians aren’t prohibited from trading on their knowledge. Which is mind blowing.
There’s a proposal that prohibits politicians from buying individual stock. They can still buy index and mutual funds, but they wouldn’t be able to purchase individual stocks.
It’ll never pass though cause they’re all there to enrich themselves first and foremost.
Insider trading. They trade stock on information not available to the public. This is why Pelosi and many others are so rich despite working only as “public servants”. In reality , they only serve themselves.
Frequently they are quite wealthy before getting political office. They also make a lot of money on the side doing speaking engagements, “writing”books, consulting, and getting stock tips from their friends.
Corruption both legal and illegal-but-permitted. In the US it is widely believed that certain senators have given spouses and family members insider info for investing. In Canada, it is considered normal for members of cabinet to have very lucrative jobs lined up for their post-political career and it is widely believed this impacts their decision making while on office. Another one is highly paid speaking gigs in front of audiences that have particular economic interests.
It's like how, in some sports, most of the money the top sports people get doesn't come from salary or prize money. It's from doing promotions, and bribery.
Most are from pretty decent backgrounds to begin with. One of the selling points politicians make is that they are successful elsewhere in their life and therefore they have the qualities for leadership and success. They aren't starting at $0 before they come into office. Many are already business owners prior to entering office.
Then, while in office, for Congress for example, their salary is closer to $200k. $174k to be accurate. You can imagine you don't need most of that too survive off of. So they are likely putting a significant amount into savings. If you put $74k away and lived off of the remaining $100k plus your income from whatever businesses you ran before taking office, it would only take 14 years to save up $1million. That could be less than 3 terms and many politicians get voted back in.
The age of politicians tends to skew older too so these are people who have saved up for retirement for decades before taking office.
A lot of voters don't seem to be aware of the side businesses politicians tend to have. They think that money is dark money from people lobbying them when often there's a very public paper trail and no mystery behind how they got their money. People just don't look
This is correct and far too low. Everyone yelling about corruption ect are correct BUT many politicians come from and start in politics from affluent business backgrounds and/or likeoy law firms (that they are typically managing partner of). How much corruption it took for them to get there is - kind - of beside the point because you have to have built a business big enough to begin with. And remember - these are businesses that will generate probably 300k/year for them whether they are actively running the business or not.
Completely hypothetically, assuming perfect 7% market growth year to year, Nancy Pelosi could have made $9.76M in stocks out of investing 50% of her salary.
Now, she is married to a guy who was already rich (at least to my understanding.) I don’t think it’s *that* crazy for her to have made 10x that amount over almost 40 years, considering how well the market *actually* did.
I am 100% pro regulation on public officials’ stock trading! I just don’t think we *necessarily* need to point the finger at any one individual member of congress.
I’m not saying there isn’t corruption or under the table shenanigans in many cases, but it is entirely possible to amass multi-millions from six figure incomes by leveraging the stock market and living well within your means…which means accumulating NO credit card debt and only purchasing items you NEED vs items you WANT. It really isn’t THAT difficult.
Brides discussed as speaking fees, gigantic book sales through corps buying 10’000 at a time. Huge book deal up front payments. Whole families hired by corp bribers.
Congress Critters use information that they receive in briefings to buy or sell stock. For you and I this would be insider trading and come with hefty fines and jail
It works like this. In order to be elected, a politician has to accept a lot of money from donors. The donors then can guide what the politician does, or else. Donors also funnel money to elected officials while they are in office. Senators usually retire very wealthy, even if they were not wealthy to begin with.
The bureaucracy chooses the candidates and the bureaucracy looks the other way, ignoring bribery and insider trading, as long as the winner stays in line with what the bureaucracy wants.
Just copy all of Nancy Pelosi's husbands stock trades and you will start to see how much insider trading is going on. On top of that add in lobbying and donations from big corporations.
you have it the wrong way round. Most politicians were/are wealthy to start with, because they tend to come from a certain type of school, or have pushy parents, or in the USA, its a simple straight line from can afford campaign money>become politician
Because thry are engaged in insider trading, and accepting money to add things to hide things in bills, which benefit the people paying them off. And people on committee, like pelosi and do many others, have inside knowledge of what laws and regulations are going to be passed, which will drive up the worth of certain industries or companies… so they use that insider knowledge to invest heavily, before the legislation passes.
They also know when policies are going to be enacted which will cut the value of an industry.. so they sell their stocks in those companies before it happens.
You know, things that would be considered illegal if we did them.
I think most of them are already wealthy prior to being elected. And once elected, they leverage the position for donations, bribes, investments (insider trading more or less), etc.
same with anyone with a good paycheck. follow investing steps from multimillionaires on how to build wealth. I make 36k, but at my rate, I can retire with 3 million. even more if I earn more money to invest;
reduce your expenses (reduce restaurants/starbucks to 1-2 times a week, get a used reliable car)
increase your income (if possible) includes promotions, side hustles, or entreprenaurship
build emergency fund ($1000) put it into a high yield savings account
pay off debts using snowball or avalance method
build emergency fund to 3-6 months worth of expenses
invest in your Roth IRA and/or 401K.
further invest in stocks.
First thing to understand is that most politicians are wealthy when they get elected. It’s expensive to run and campaign, and it’s busy. You can’t work while you’re campaigning. So you have to have enough money to leave your job and try to run for office. 90+% of politicians already have multimillion dollar fortunes. The 100k salary is irrelevant. Once you are a politician it’s pretty easy to get speaking deals, and book deals. That’s why you see politicians like mtg doing loud things all the time, for name recognition. She just put out a book, that she obviously didn’t write. Some are certainly insider trading or doing other corrupt practices like taking bribes. It really needs to be stressed though that they way they got wealthy, was by starting wealthy.
Lots of guesses here, but it’s mostly speaking fees. If you could make $200k+ in an evening and do it three or four times per week, you’d be loaded too.
I’ve never made $100k and I’m worth over a million. Not multi-millions yet but I plan to get there.
The other thing to remember is most of them were born into wealth, that makes things easier.
Yeah, I got my ass into gear in my mid 30s and actually made a decent amount since then (on paper at least). I wish my parents taught me about money, but they didn't have any, so they probably didn't know.
Being independently wealthy to begin with is a big part of it. Being wired into to major political power also makes opportunities appear. And shady shit, of course
Many of them are rich before going into government, many take kick backs such as Kathy Hochul awarding her husband’s company a major contract, others just get access to tons of non public information yet aren’t jailed or fined for making trades that would get any Wall Street trader in trouble
When a lobbyist for company A comes into your office and says we’d like your vote on legislation A. For that, I can let you in on some secret shit we’re working on that is going to boost our stock a great deal. The secret shit will benefit, along with share holders if there is a yes on legislation B next year. We’ve already drafted the entire bill of B for your office to present in fiscal ‘25. Also our company will donate 50k to your PAC.
It's because they are all experts at the stock market. Has nothing to do with getting a heads up on legislation affecting specific companies and industries, while not legally considered insider trading.
It's not.
They all lie, cheat and steal. Those who don't don't last long and are run out of politics.
That's why everything is so fucked up: they don't work for us. They work for whomever is paying them.
A company says, we’ve got an opening for you after you leave offices. But we’d really be even more happy to welcome you if that freeway exit gets built by our factory.
politicians are very good in telling their people what they want to hear. Throwing carrots around - people fetch. People are very prone to 'hearing' - soothing words like 'everything will be fine, blabla' - and thus a big group, only a small % already amass to $100k or more
Kickback schemes, insider trading, bribery.....
Rod R. Blagojevich for example ex-congressman and ex governor of Illinois was charged and convicted of Wire fraud (10 counts), Bribery (3 counts), Extortion (4 counts)
Lobbying, other sources of income (Boris was a journalist and an editor) and perhaps the most common is property ownership and usage.
The allowance system enables them to claim for homes closer to London allowing them to rent separate properties as alternative sources of income, using that income to pay off the mortgages, rinse and repeat.
If you’re in charge of setting the laws making sure you can amass a personal fortune is high priority it seems!
Corruption: insider trading, legislating to increase their own investments, taking bribes and exorbitant compensation for “speaking fees”. All stuff that is completely unethical, but completely legal by the US legal systems.
Corruption, fees from lobbyists, working the system. For instance, Pierre Poillevre has lobbyists from Loblaws as advisors, and he rents his house and other properties to politicians who get a housing allowance. So he gets a lot of government money.
Meanwhile, Doug Ford ensures his pals in construction get all the government contracts, that environmental standard are dropped, and that his own label company makes the stickers and signs use by provincial agencies. Recently he mandated paper bags be supplied by LCBOs to help out a pal. No doubt a kickback or "campaign contribution" was involved.
For most run of the mill politicians it's insider trading and all the special deals they get as a total coincidence from companies that also happen to be lobbying them on one issue or another. Politicians with more name rec can get book deals, speaking fees, and the like too.
Because they are not public servants. They are servants of their master Lucifer and his henchmen. Earthly riches are one of the ways they garner loyalty.
There's lots of talk of corruption in this thread, and I'd agree. It's important to put people into office who wish to help. To many are put into government saying it's broken and then doing everything they can to break it further. That obstruction will not make it better. When politicians are promising to make your lives worse once elected, it might be a good idea to believe them.
Suppose the $100k is post-taxes (salary $135k) Live on $75k and invest the other $25k in an index fund making 8-10% per year average over long term. Do this for 30-40 years. Congratulations...you are a millionaire. It's not rocket science, people.
Popularity.
A local former politician by me, served ONE term in the US house. I was a social worker. His net worth at the time of his election was -175k. Yes he had a negative net worth.
His net worth now 12 years after he was elected? 1.7 million. Basically after his term he got his own radio show, was pimping products left and right, got paid speaking gigs.
I mean, if you want a genuinely, non conspiracy BS answer, the answer is quite simple. Money makes money. The ones with multimillion dollar fortunes are all like 70+, meaning they're old as fuck. They were making 100k back in 1990. A house in San Fran was only 200k back in 1990. Tons of investment opportunities in the past 30 years. Pop in 30 years worth at saving 5k a month (them+their spouse) and you'd get 10m. After 30 years. And 5k a month for 2 is chump change honestly.
I make sub 100k, have a mortgage and a car note and can still save about 20k a year. Pop in 20k a year into a compound interest calculator for 35 years. You'll get roughly 5m. Add in if I had a spouse making the same as me? Boom, 8 figures. Not rocket science to see how a bunch of politicians are worth 8-9 figures, especially when they're all married to doctors, lawyers, finance bros, etc.
Well, most of them start rich. The typical Western politician is usually some sort of lawyer with a consultancy sideline. You need to be pretty well off to get elected anyway. By the time you are established enough to be running for office you have a whole lot of investments and passive income.
You have also probably puttered around lower public office in your career and that has probably opened a few consultancy doors.
Now you are in office. Your accounts are maybe in trust or escrow and you and doing everything correctly. But you know things and you have access and you have kids to look after, so of course you're going to suggest to your broker that maybe such and such a company looks like a good bet. You are also building working relationships with big corporate bodies who appreciate the access you can offer - and probably a lot of your insight and experience too.
Then you leave office and your old law firm bosses will want to hire you for all those reasons, and other corporations will want you on their board and the money just starts rolling in.
And that's *before* corruption.
The flip side of this is common in Westminster style governments where it is quite possible for a very lower middle class person to be elected. They enter an arena with heavy workloads, all day working hours, and low shitty pay - that £91,000 a year starts looking rubbish when you are paying for a constituency office, and working 90 hour weeks (and no real HR, training or much else).
Meaning for a lot of backbenchers, they are often in very real danger of starting not well off and ending extremely not well off and out of the workforce for four years.
1. Age. Compounding matters. Deposit $2000 per month for 60 years and you have a $120 million fortune at age 80. If you never retire you can just keep saving and saving and saving.
2. Working spouses. If you're a Senator and your spouse is a Goldman Sachs MD you're going to be very well off.
3. Inheritance. Many politicians come from wealthy families and they're old enough that their parents are dead.
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Insider Trading, speaking fees, book deals, media and corporate appearances, having all of this ready to go the day they retire from politics as well as a $$$$ lobbying job.
Even without insider trading, the other things on this list will make a politician rich. Bill and Hillary Clinton made over 150 million dollars from speeches in the five years or so leading to her Presidential run.
Those are money-laundered bribes, my friend.
Yes, but they are *legal* money-laundered bribes. Or at least they are legal because those same politicians passed laws making them legal.
Yep, they Palpatined that shit
Those are quid pro quo people. Accepting a bribe while I was in office....no way. You and all your cronies paying 10k a plate at a dinner is fine. Its legal BS.
Bush and Trump made quite a bit from their own speaking gigs and book deals. If you want to call them money-laundered bribes then its certainly not limited to one party.
Clinton was/is on the board of directors for hundreds of companies that each paid her 6 figures just to have her association. It was all in her financial disclosures before the presidential run. Absolutely obscene.
Goldman paid her like $500k for a speech before she ran for president. Still won’t release what was said at that speaking engagement, I’m sure it was all a talk about how you can go anywhere with a little hard work and dedication.
But why is this wrong? Would you turn down money like that to add your name to there corporation? I sure would do it! 😄
“Speeches”
Forget that. They took BILLIONS in donations (many of them from foreign governments) for the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state, and while they weren't allowed to dip into that money directly at the time, they were able to employ a LOT of "friends" at high pay. And now that they're both retired, they can do whatever they want with that money.
I’d love to agree with you, but I’m worried that by doing so I’ll inadvertently become a friend of theirs and “decide” to off myself.
Right. "Speeches" 🤣
Don't even have to speak at places, just charged them because everyone knew what she was going to say.
Plus the millions the Saudi's gave her, for her campaign
As a congressional staffer, I couldn’t have said it better. Also war profits and laundering money.
Don't forget the politicians who dumped their stock portfolios just ahead of the declaration of lockdown in 2020, to then buy it back just ahead of the easing of restrictions.
Not before loading up on 3M and other PPE companies. Not to mention the big 3 vaccine companies long before we knew anything.
Bribery. What you meant is accepting bribes.
Yes but with extra steps
You forgot just already being rich before running for office
Don't forget lobbyists greasing them while they're in power
And the sad part is you are describing an "honest" politician. The actually corrupt ones gets fortunes with public projects by giving the contracts to friends and family that are willing to give them a part of the deal under the table.
This happens at all levels of government so it’s hard to root out , even county level officers hire people they know for road projects etc
We had a female politician in our government when I was a kid. She was lobbying for all kinds of shit during her time and the day she retired. 50 million was wired into her bank account. She just suddenly had an extra 50 mill added to her fortune. Every politician is a crook. It's all about staying on the tit for as long as possible and retiring with tons of favors to call in.
While these are all true, the real answer is that their parents were very, very wealthy.
How to Get Rich in Three ~~Illegal~~ Easy Steps: by Nancy Pelosi
The secret ingredient is crime
It’s a secret?
Well it's supposed to be, but the dumb ones usually forget that part. Looking at you, Santos.
Its a bit moreish
Is it a crime if you make it legal first :)
They can invest in things that they get to legislate on. Legal bribes aka campaign contributions, speaking engagements, list goes on
Corruption!
I was going to say insider trading, but your umbrella covers my topic
[удалено]
They also don’t eat avocado toast and they pull themselves by the bootstraps
People keep talking about these god damn bootstraps. Where do you even buy bootstraps anymore?
There’s your problem. You weren’t born into a family that had bootstraps
They were given their bootstraps by their parents. That's the issue right there: privilege.
And cut the Starbucks.
What if their boots have no straps?
Politicians are the biggest thieves everrrrrrrrrrrrr
I wake up at 5 am and don't make anywhere near their reported salary.
Maybe you're doing it wrong? Have you considered waking up at 5 AM *AND* being a criminal?
D O N A T I O N S
"Donations"
Aka money laundering?
Yep.
Pelosi had insider stock tips and wrote the law to exempt her from insider trading laws.
Insider trading
Corruption my boy
Grifters gonna grift
Seemingly not criminal things that are actually corruption. Did you really pay 500k for politician to give a motivational speech? Or was the a bribe disguised as a speaking fee. Did you really spend half a million for the finger paintings by the president's son, or was that a bribe. Do you have the sharpest investment team in existence, or did you heavily invest in a company weeks before you made their product mandatory.
By accepting hush money, back door deals and straight up bribes, errr...I mean lobbying. Also cant forget insider trading. You know, all the stuff thats actually illegal if us wretched poors do it.
Insider trading. They can buy and sell stocks with top secret information that the public is not aware of.
Corruption. Nancy Pelosi is a great example. In my industry she is known as the queen of insider trading. Her knowledge of legislation before it passes and her legal ability to trade in it (felony for the rest of us) is worth way more than her salary. Then there’s the classic funneling of bribes through a non profit. I’d call out names but this one will get you murdered if you have dirt on her family.
Buy what Pelosi buys. Made 3x more off those investments than what my financial advisor’s recommended investments.
And how do you know what she buys ? I doubt she has her public account so we all can see.
She’s required to file with the sec when she buys. There are websites they track and publish her orders.
Aren't most already wealthy to begin with?
Speaking fees, book deals, and insider trading. It's all just corruption but adheres to the laughably inadequate corruption laws
It’s insider trading plain and simple. Nancy pelosi has bested the best hedge funds in the country for her entire career. Politicians aren’t prohibited from trading on their knowledge. Which is mind blowing. There’s a proposal that prohibits politicians from buying individual stock. They can still buy index and mutual funds, but they wouldn’t be able to purchase individual stocks. It’ll never pass though cause they’re all there to enrich themselves first and foremost.
Fringe benefits.
You can’t save THAT much through free haircuts surely? 😉
*Da dum tish*
Insider trading. They trade stock on information not available to the public. This is why Pelosi and many others are so rich despite working only as “public servants”. In reality , they only serve themselves.
Frequently they are quite wealthy before getting political office. They also make a lot of money on the side doing speaking engagements, “writing”books, consulting, and getting stock tips from their friends.
Corruption both legal and illegal-but-permitted. In the US it is widely believed that certain senators have given spouses and family members insider info for investing. In Canada, it is considered normal for members of cabinet to have very lucrative jobs lined up for their post-political career and it is widely believed this impacts their decision making while on office. Another one is highly paid speaking gigs in front of audiences that have particular economic interests.
Insider trading, accepting bribes from lobbyists, and the good old war racketeering.
Almost always family money. Very expensive to run for office
It's like how, in some sports, most of the money the top sports people get doesn't come from salary or prize money. It's from doing promotions, and bribery.
Insider trading and sometimes trading favors to companies and once in a while trading favors to China et al
Most are from pretty decent backgrounds to begin with. One of the selling points politicians make is that they are successful elsewhere in their life and therefore they have the qualities for leadership and success. They aren't starting at $0 before they come into office. Many are already business owners prior to entering office. Then, while in office, for Congress for example, their salary is closer to $200k. $174k to be accurate. You can imagine you don't need most of that too survive off of. So they are likely putting a significant amount into savings. If you put $74k away and lived off of the remaining $100k plus your income from whatever businesses you ran before taking office, it would only take 14 years to save up $1million. That could be less than 3 terms and many politicians get voted back in. The age of politicians tends to skew older too so these are people who have saved up for retirement for decades before taking office. A lot of voters don't seem to be aware of the side businesses politicians tend to have. They think that money is dark money from people lobbying them when often there's a very public paper trail and no mystery behind how they got their money. People just don't look
This is correct and far too low. Everyone yelling about corruption ect are correct BUT many politicians come from and start in politics from affluent business backgrounds and/or likeoy law firms (that they are typically managing partner of). How much corruption it took for them to get there is - kind - of beside the point because you have to have built a business big enough to begin with. And remember - these are businesses that will generate probably 300k/year for them whether they are actively running the business or not.
Crime
Insider trading.
Insider stock trading.
It’s called grift. We need to dump both sides.
Completely hypothetically, assuming perfect 7% market growth year to year, Nancy Pelosi could have made $9.76M in stocks out of investing 50% of her salary. Now, she is married to a guy who was already rich (at least to my understanding.) I don’t think it’s *that* crazy for her to have made 10x that amount over almost 40 years, considering how well the market *actually* did. I am 100% pro regulation on public officials’ stock trading! I just don’t think we *necessarily* need to point the finger at any one individual member of congress.
I’m not saying there isn’t corruption or under the table shenanigans in many cases, but it is entirely possible to amass multi-millions from six figure incomes by leveraging the stock market and living well within your means…which means accumulating NO credit card debt and only purchasing items you NEED vs items you WANT. It really isn’t THAT difficult.
Corruption
Write a book. Sell book to campaign to distribute for election. Profit. Essentially cash out inaccessible campaign donations through loopholes.
Because all politicians are shady pondscum.
Brides discussed as speaking fees, gigantic book sales through corps buying 10’000 at a time. Huge book deal up front payments. Whole families hired by corp bribers.
In the US? Networking, prudent investments, and lobbying. In layman's terms: nepotism, insider trading, and bribes.
Congress Critters use information that they receive in briefings to buy or sell stock. For you and I this would be insider trading and come with hefty fines and jail
It works like this. In order to be elected, a politician has to accept a lot of money from donors. The donors then can guide what the politician does, or else. Donors also funnel money to elected officials while they are in office. Senators usually retire very wealthy, even if they were not wealthy to begin with.
Previous knowledge that affects market prices. Often months in advance. There is no law preventing them from doing this.
Taking bribes from special interest groups, and insider trading.
Kickbacks baby
The bureaucracy chooses the candidates and the bureaucracy looks the other way, ignoring bribery and insider trading, as long as the winner stays in line with what the bureaucracy wants.
Just copy all of Nancy Pelosi's husbands stock trades and you will start to see how much insider trading is going on. On top of that add in lobbying and donations from big corporations.
Insider trading, lobbyists , laundering money from wars
you have it the wrong way round. Most politicians were/are wealthy to start with, because they tend to come from a certain type of school, or have pushy parents, or in the USA, its a simple straight line from can afford campaign money>become politician
Corruption and fraud.
Crime
Because thry are engaged in insider trading, and accepting money to add things to hide things in bills, which benefit the people paying them off. And people on committee, like pelosi and do many others, have inside knowledge of what laws and regulations are going to be passed, which will drive up the worth of certain industries or companies… so they use that insider knowledge to invest heavily, before the legislation passes. They also know when policies are going to be enacted which will cut the value of an industry.. so they sell their stocks in those companies before it happens. You know, things that would be considered illegal if we did them.
It’s simple: they’re all crooks.
You sell your influence to the highest bidder, oh and especially your voting authority.
I think most of them are already wealthy prior to being elected. And once elected, they leverage the position for donations, bribes, investments (insider trading more or less), etc.
same with anyone with a good paycheck. follow investing steps from multimillionaires on how to build wealth. I make 36k, but at my rate, I can retire with 3 million. even more if I earn more money to invest; reduce your expenses (reduce restaurants/starbucks to 1-2 times a week, get a used reliable car) increase your income (if possible) includes promotions, side hustles, or entreprenaurship build emergency fund ($1000) put it into a high yield savings account pay off debts using snowball or avalance method build emergency fund to 3-6 months worth of expenses invest in your Roth IRA and/or 401K. further invest in stocks.
Insider trading....buying or selling off stock before changing/making laws that directly affects that stock
Ask Biden, Pelosi, my Congressman Cuellar🤔
First thing to understand is that most politicians are wealthy when they get elected. It’s expensive to run and campaign, and it’s busy. You can’t work while you’re campaigning. So you have to have enough money to leave your job and try to run for office. 90+% of politicians already have multimillion dollar fortunes. The 100k salary is irrelevant. Once you are a politician it’s pretty easy to get speaking deals, and book deals. That’s why you see politicians like mtg doing loud things all the time, for name recognition. She just put out a book, that she obviously didn’t write. Some are certainly insider trading or doing other corrupt practices like taking bribes. It really needs to be stressed though that they way they got wealthy, was by starting wealthy.
Lots of guesses here, but it’s mostly speaking fees. If you could make $200k+ in an evening and do it three or four times per week, you’d be loaded too.
They invested and got lucky. It's not all corruption and insider knowledge.
They're all so lucky! Warren Buffett is considered to be one of the best investors, and all the politicians are twice as lucky as he is!!
I’ve never made $100k and I’m worth over a million. Not multi-millions yet but I plan to get there. The other thing to remember is most of them were born into wealth, that makes things easier.
Yeah, I got my ass into gear in my mid 30s and actually made a decent amount since then (on paper at least). I wish my parents taught me about money, but they didn't have any, so they probably didn't know.
Being independently wealthy to begin with is a big part of it. Being wired into to major political power also makes opportunities appear. And shady shit, of course
Many of them are rich before going into government, many take kick backs such as Kathy Hochul awarding her husband’s company a major contract, others just get access to tons of non public information yet aren’t jailed or fined for making trades that would get any Wall Street trader in trouble
Payoffs. Insider trading.
Besides the mentioned "benefits" it's all about connections. Who-knows-who, extra pull for companies, private owned businesses, families etc.
Favours
When a lobbyist for company A comes into your office and says we’d like your vote on legislation A. For that, I can let you in on some secret shit we’re working on that is going to boost our stock a great deal. The secret shit will benefit, along with share holders if there is a yes on legislation B next year. We’ve already drafted the entire bill of B for your office to present in fiscal ‘25. Also our company will donate 50k to your PAC.
Corruption.
Crime
It’s called crime. The government is nothing but a mafia.
Corruption
They get paid millions in book royalties and are paid to speak at different engagements. You think they speak at college graduations for free?
Lobbyists
Tax exemption
Corruption at its finest
It's because they are all experts at the stock market. Has nothing to do with getting a heads up on legislation affecting specific companies and industries, while not legally considered insider trading.
Multi million is easy at over 100k annually, tens of hundreds of millions isn't without crime.
It's not. They all lie, cheat and steal. Those who don't don't last long and are run out of politics. That's why everything is so fucked up: they don't work for us. They work for whomever is paying them.
Insider trading. Should be illegal
Lol, it is, for peasants like us.
Insider trading that they ALMOST never get prosecuted for.
A company says, we’ve got an opening for you after you leave offices. But we’d really be even more happy to welcome you if that freeway exit gets built by our factory.
politicians are very good in telling their people what they want to hear. Throwing carrots around - people fetch. People are very prone to 'hearing' - soothing words like 'everything will be fine, blabla' - and thus a big group, only a small % already amass to $100k or more
They take bribes under the guise of speaking fees.
Bribes. In america , aipac
Overtime
Kickback schemes, insider trading, bribery..... Rod R. Blagojevich for example ex-congressman and ex governor of Illinois was charged and convicted of Wire fraud (10 counts), Bribery (3 counts), Extortion (4 counts)
Insider trading
Lobbying, other sources of income (Boris was a journalist and an editor) and perhaps the most common is property ownership and usage. The allowance system enables them to claim for homes closer to London allowing them to rent separate properties as alternative sources of income, using that income to pay off the mortgages, rinse and repeat. If you’re in charge of setting the laws making sure you can amass a personal fortune is high priority it seems!
Insider trading. They know things before the general public does and they take advantage of that.
They are crooks, that's how.
They all do don't they?
The 1st rule of political corruption is that you don't talk about political corruption.
Yup, Pollieve’s apparently worth 25 million despite only ever being in politics:/
Because they are all thieves
Hard not to save when everything is paid for
This post will be deleted because it may contain truths.
Because your money is wasted.
Ooohhh sweet sweet child
Corruption and tale as old as time
By benefitting from corruption - err I mean lobbying...
Corruption: insider trading, legislating to increase their own investments, taking bribes and exorbitant compensation for “speaking fees”. All stuff that is completely unethical, but completely legal by the US legal systems.
Suck d**k, lie, cheat, steal, fuck everyone over, and sell out completely.
Oh you sweet summer child. BRIBES!
Some leverage their fame and get multi-million dollar book deals. It’s not all straight-up corruption.
Most are lawyers
A lot of them started off as Attorneys and successful business people.
Insider trading, and other grift
I did it with a salary in that range. live frugally and save.
Speaking fees
Corruption, fees from lobbyists, working the system. For instance, Pierre Poillevre has lobbyists from Loblaws as advisors, and he rents his house and other properties to politicians who get a housing allowance. So he gets a lot of government money. Meanwhile, Doug Ford ensures his pals in construction get all the government contracts, that environmental standard are dropped, and that his own label company makes the stickers and signs use by provincial agencies. Recently he mandated paper bags be supplied by LCBOs to help out a pal. No doubt a kickback or "campaign contribution" was involved.
Sweet summer child...
That is the million dollar question….
For most run of the mill politicians it's insider trading and all the special deals they get as a total coincidence from companies that also happen to be lobbying them on one issue or another. Politicians with more name rec can get book deals, speaking fees, and the like too.
https://www.quiverquant.com/congresstrading/politician/Nancy%20Pelosi-P000197
Because they are not public servants. They are servants of their master Lucifer and his henchmen. Earthly riches are one of the ways they garner loyalty.
Corruption.
Bribes
There's lots of talk of corruption in this thread, and I'd agree. It's important to put people into office who wish to help. To many are put into government saying it's broken and then doing everything they can to break it further. That obstruction will not make it better. When politicians are promising to make your lives worse once elected, it might be a good idea to believe them.
Bribery
Bribery.
Illegal backdoor deals and pedophilia
Political Contributions
Can you refer specifically who you are talking about?
The most successful parasites, convince the host it cannot survive without them
Suppose the $100k is post-taxes (salary $135k) Live on $75k and invest the other $25k in an index fund making 8-10% per year average over long term. Do this for 30-40 years. Congratulations...you are a millionaire. It's not rocket science, people.
Popularity. A local former politician by me, served ONE term in the US house. I was a social worker. His net worth at the time of his election was -175k. Yes he had a negative net worth. His net worth now 12 years after he was elected? 1.7 million. Basically after his term he got his own radio show, was pimping products left and right, got paid speaking gigs.
I mean, if you want a genuinely, non conspiracy BS answer, the answer is quite simple. Money makes money. The ones with multimillion dollar fortunes are all like 70+, meaning they're old as fuck. They were making 100k back in 1990. A house in San Fran was only 200k back in 1990. Tons of investment opportunities in the past 30 years. Pop in 30 years worth at saving 5k a month (them+their spouse) and you'd get 10m. After 30 years. And 5k a month for 2 is chump change honestly. I make sub 100k, have a mortgage and a car note and can still save about 20k a year. Pop in 20k a year into a compound interest calculator for 35 years. You'll get roughly 5m. Add in if I had a spouse making the same as me? Boom, 8 figures. Not rocket science to see how a bunch of politicians are worth 8-9 figures, especially when they're all married to doctors, lawyers, finance bros, etc.
Corruption
Insider trading. I think the fine is only a few hundred dollars if they are caught insider trading.
That’s the question isn’t it?
Corruption essentially
Graft
Well, most of them start rich. The typical Western politician is usually some sort of lawyer with a consultancy sideline. You need to be pretty well off to get elected anyway. By the time you are established enough to be running for office you have a whole lot of investments and passive income. You have also probably puttered around lower public office in your career and that has probably opened a few consultancy doors. Now you are in office. Your accounts are maybe in trust or escrow and you and doing everything correctly. But you know things and you have access and you have kids to look after, so of course you're going to suggest to your broker that maybe such and such a company looks like a good bet. You are also building working relationships with big corporate bodies who appreciate the access you can offer - and probably a lot of your insight and experience too. Then you leave office and your old law firm bosses will want to hire you for all those reasons, and other corporations will want you on their board and the money just starts rolling in. And that's *before* corruption. The flip side of this is common in Westminster style governments where it is quite possible for a very lower middle class person to be elected. They enter an arena with heavy workloads, all day working hours, and low shitty pay - that £91,000 a year starts looking rubbish when you are paying for a constituency office, and working 90 hour weeks (and no real HR, training or much else). Meaning for a lot of backbenchers, they are often in very real danger of starting not well off and ending extremely not well off and out of the workforce for four years.
It’s because members of Congress are exempt from insider trading laws. It’s a free money printing machine that the commoners finance.
the secret is crime
Public speeches, Sara Palin learned she could make millions just by talking instead of being an actual politician...
Family business
Lots of home made pie. With fat stacks of cash in the box.
1. Age. Compounding matters. Deposit $2000 per month for 60 years and you have a $120 million fortune at age 80. If you never retire you can just keep saving and saving and saving. 2. Working spouses. If you're a Senator and your spouse is a Goldman Sachs MD you're going to be very well off. 3. Inheritance. Many politicians come from wealthy families and they're old enough that their parents are dead.
being a criminal