Item — HN Reader

I'm certainly not advocating for our ruling class but also consider that the cost to run and win a senate seat is something like $15M and a house seat over $2M (and that was data from a few years ago and only took averages, not the top races which were dramatically higher).

And they are full time jobs that require an enormous amount of personal ambition (which is usually tied to wealth) so one can argue even being in congress prices out anyone NOT a "multi-millionaire".

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... Is this the other side of the argument?

If so, it really helps frame just how messed up this system is.

No, not really. As far as "it would be nice" for politics to be free market of ideas, having to deal with scale is simply an inherent part of the world we live in.

Like What system would You propose where campaigning funds don't matter? What, public fund where every candidate gets a fair share and they are prohibited to, for example, printing flyers on their own? In the land of free, nonetheless? Ofcourse it costs a lot to campaign for high positions in country as big as the US. Actually, in any country.

Well the problem is a) size of congress hasn't kept up with growth of country, and b) there are a lot more wealthy people.

So basic supply and demand means more competitive seats, more expensive races, more pricing out anyone attached to the reality of living an average citizens life in this country.

I don't have an alternative proposal at the moment but step 1 is identifying the issue.

There's definitely alternatives. Just as an example - Require every campaign to fund all expenses and advertising from a single campaign account, and limit funding sources to individual people with a personal contribution limit per candidate. Heck, limit the actual campaign period to the 3-4 months before the election while we're at it.

No more super bowl campaign ads? That sounds like a great system to me.

But that can by bypassed super easily. Sure, you might not get adds of type "vote X" anymore. But then I will just sponsor a "documentary" about all the ways that Y screwed the country over. Or even more directly, why X KS a great politician.

As for single account, again: will your forbid other "individuals" to make any political contributions that might or might not influence standings of a given candidate? Verry quickly you start playing cat and mouse game, and at the same time, heavily infringing on freedom of expression