Wealthy politicians cannot offer fair representation to all the people.

Wealthy politicians cannot offer fair representation to all the people.

5:10- 5:40

Since the start of human civilizations, a ruling class has been in place to maintain order in society. Without the ruling class, the rest of society will lack direction and pandemonium through violence and civil unrest will occur. Over time, the ruling class became more affiliated with wealth than with the common person and has often been challenging to offer fair representation for all people. In general the majority of the population have often expressed disapproval of a wealthy politician over a normal politician because people fear that fair representation may not be possible in some circumstances.

First consider  a situation when wealthy politicians can not offer fair representation to all people. This scenario is often true when there is only a handful of wealthy people and the rest are of the poor working class, which accurately portrays a third world country. In the South American country of Nicaragua, Arnoldo Aleman was a wealthy politician who assumed the presidency in 2006 as the 81^st president. Since then the country has been in famine and disease due to poor government regulations. Most politicians in impoverished countries come from wealthy backgrounds since money is required to campaign for office. In the case of Aleman, he was a lawyer and active in business of commodities such as coffee and tobacco. Since Nicaragua was a 3^rd world country, many people can not afford to meet their biological needs of food, water, shelter and clothing, likewise have no access to education. After serving five years it was evident that Aleman’s administration there was widespread corruption in his government as. Also he was accused of money laundering and embezzling funds for personal gain. In all Arnoldo Aleman has embezzled $100 million while in office. This crime is very heinous considering the fact that most of the country is in poverty. Hence, Arnoldo Aleman is an example of a wealthy politician unable to show fair representation for the people.

In contrast, some wealthy politicians can offer fair representation to all people. Although many politicians are generally wealthy, local politicians can be examined here. David Miller is currently the mayor of Toronto, Ontario. Before serving as a politician he was a lawyer at a prominent law firm in Toronto. His annual salary stands at $163, 040 which is fairly wealthy but this year he declined a 2.42% wage increase. One of his campaigning promises was to stop a bridge from being constructed to Toronto Island Airport since he felt that doing so would put the interests of the lobbyists in front of the public. Likewise, when he was councilor of the ward he opposed a condominium building project near High park, and instead used that land for affordable housing for low income residents. He was also part of exposing a computer leasing scandal where the city’s budget chief had inappropriate relationships with the salesman of MEP financial services. He was reelected second term for his good action. Another example, President Barack Obama. Obama came from a middle class family and worked his way up the social ladder to becoming a lawyer and acquiring US presidency in 2009. Recently, there has been debate over increasing the college loan interest rates by Republicans to fuel more money into the private sector. Obama opposed this measure because his recent speech and earlier struggles surrounding the college loan interest issue relates to the struggles of so many college students across the US.  So it is evident that wealthy politicians such as Obama and Miller can offer fair representation to all people when they come from the same background as their constituents.

In all, it is circumstantial if a wealthy politician can offer fair representation or not. In a poor country, like Nicaragua, the people are less educated are less likely to demand accountability by the politicians. In these countries fair representation by wealthy politicians is not possible. Therefore, politicians are more likely to seek personal benefit since they can get away with the crime due to the illiteracy of the general public. In contrast, in industrialized countries like Canada, people are more educated and expect more accountability by the politicians. Freedoms by the constitution allow the people to access government information and thus wealthy politicians in these countries offer representation to all people since more checks and balances are in place. Also since politicians such as Obama and Miller come from middle class background, similar to their constituents they are able to understand issues and act in favor of them.