Enrichment Through Government Service
How do people feel when the leaders of government become rich while in office? Even if there is not direct theft of funds, there's the understandable suspicion that corrupt use of influence and power has led to the accretion of wealth.
I'm sniffling with a cold and so I don't have the energy to analyze how different leaders became wealthy while in government service. That would be a great blog, but I'm not up to it right now. However, I do have the energy to create a list of leaders and show how much (according to public sources) the leaders were worth when they took office and how much they were worth when they left office.
Most leaders are paid a salary. I've given for each leader the amount of that salary. Is that sum sufficient to explain the growth in personal worth for the different individuals? If not, then we can think a bit about how leaders might have used the levers of power to enrich themselves.
It's surprisingly difficult (to me) how hard it is to find out what a public figure was worth years ago, when they entered office. Couldn't find figures for Tony Blair, Sarkozy, Thatcher, for example. I didn't look hard but it was much easier to find that information about U.S. presidents
I'm not including wealth accrued after leaders left office. That's simply opportunism. It's not graft.
USA (Presidents)
Salary $400,000
Clinton net worth when he took office was $700,000
When he left office: $16 million in debtGeorge W. Bush entered office:$20 million
George W. Bush net worth in 2008:9 1/2 millionObama on taking office 1.3 million
Obama: 12.2 million on leaving officeDonald Trump first term:2016: 1.3 billion
Donald Trump 2020: 1.7 billionJoe Biden on entering office: $8 million
Biden leaving office: $10 millionDonald Trump Second Term: entering 4.3 billion
Donald Trump (one year later) December 2025:7.3 billion
Russia
Salary: $140,000
Vladimir Putin net worth when he became president in 1999 $203,281
Vladimir Putin net worth today (actually, no one knows) 200 billion
Canada (Prime Minister)
Salary: $400,000
Pierre Trudeau net worth on entering office $1.5 million
Leaving office $2.7 million
India
Salary $22,294
Prime Minister Modi worth in 2014 upon entering office $197,000
PM Modi worth today $400,000
From the examples above, we can take a stab at a few conclusions (the data may not be correct, so we are guessing).
- If you want to become the leader of your country, it helps to be rich
- You do not have to be very rich...look at Clinton, Putin and Modi.
- Not everyone gets rich while in office. It certainly doesn't hurt the wallet to be a leader (unless, like Bill Clinton, you get taken to court and have many legal bills). George Bush seems to have taken a hit while in office, but then his presidency ended in the middle of a global financial crisis. Don't worry about him...he rebounded, afterwards.
- It is possible to greatly enrich yourself while being leader--look at Putin and Trump, especially this past year of Trump's second term.
If one doesn't directly steal from the national treasury, how can a leader get rich in office? It's simple if the leader has a hand in business while at the same time directing national policy. It's very easy to ingratiate oneself with a foreign leader, for example, and then negotiate a lucrative business deal. There is not direct quid-pro-quo, but an exchange for value does exist. One can direct national policy--say, for example, loosen up constraints on the crypto market while creating your own crypto entity.
Do you live in a kleptocracy? Or is your leader a grifter? If that's the case, does this bother you? Does it personally cost you money if a leader is grifting?
What if government policy--decisions about foreign relations, for example--are influenced by a leader's hunger for a business profit? Does that hurt the country? Or should the leader only make foreign policy decisions with the good of the country in mind?
I'm shooting these questions off the top of my head. As I said, I have a cold and am not thinking deeply.
The picture for this blog was created before the narrative was written. Below are listed the sources for all the elements in the collage.
I love making a collage. I was stressed a few days ago because someone in my family was ill (it's been a challenging week). The collage helped me to relax. Best drug I have :)
Sources for my collage:
World leader at the lectern: Pixabay
Seal on the front of the lectern Pixabay
Chandelier Pixabay
Man pushing cart full of money Unsplash
Coins Pixabay
About making a collage. Please do! LMAC is a welcoming community. Collage is a great way for people who are not artists (me) to express themselves visually. All my life I've lived in a verbal universe. That's my comfort zone. Years ago @shaka, the founder of this community, began this community and invited everyone to try their hand at collage. This was a new way of expression for me.
There are community rules. You can read about them on our community page. Right now we are not running a contest, but we always accept free-form collages for curation.
Thank you for reading my blog.
Peace and health to all.
https://noplaceforrumors.wordpress.com/?s=adam+smith
https://pixabay.com/vectors/barack-hussein-obama-ii-president-294379/
https://pixabay.com/vectors/seal-usa-eagle-flag-united-states-294494/
https://pixabay.com/photos/chandelier-royal-palace-compiegne-525405/
https://pixabay.com/photos/money-making-coin-finances-cash-3080876/
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I think Nancy Pelosi's networth grew astronomically during her tenures as a congresswoman. For Trump's, I've no doubt he hit 7B by manipulating the global finance markets. By supporting the crypto cause but backing out later on, creating his own token and dumping majority on the market.
Also he did manipulate the market by his silly trade wars. Whenever he announced a tarriff imposition, the markets took a hit and bled red. When he retracted, it all turned green again. Someone called, I think Warren Buffet, for an investigation into the crypto activities of the Trump family, and I couldn't agree more. Especially when Trump leaves office.
The greedy nature of man will always come to the fore when he has opportunity to make large fortunes for himself. That's exactly the case with politicians.
Hi @aloysiusmbaba,
I was actually only writing about the top leader--president, PM, etc. If we are looking at other government officials I'll have to write a book! I don't know how it works in other countries, but the rules governing investing by U.S. elected officials are porous. And their families...well that's open season.
Pelosi's husband is a venture capitalist I think. The possibilities were unlimited and they became, as a couple, vastly wealthy. She came to office in 2007, so that's a long time to make money.
I found a list from 2014 that attempted to show the amount of wealth amassed by U.S. Senators and Representatives over their careers. I don't know how accurate the list is, but it does show that being in government rarely impoverishes. Here's the list.
Ok. Thanks.
Thanks for raising the issue...interesting perspective.
Excellent collage and post! Here, the last government is a striking example of this. Namely, there are people in the government who do not know how to govern at all; it is obvious that they came to power only to line their pockets. All of them, unfortunately.
!INDEED
Thank you for the positive feedback, @seckorama. Lean times on Hive but I was determined to post a collage, and will post more.
I think, sometimes people may be passionate about an issue on a local level. They raise their voices with true feeling. Then they get caught up. They have to make deals to get stuff done. They have to put up with corruption in order to achieve their goals. In the end,they are themselves corrupted. The good ones, the ones who won't compromise, don't survive. Only those who can fight dirty survive the system. That's how I think we get all those slugs in leadership positions.
Whatever they do, I'm going to turn to my family this season and for a little time pretend the world is a fantasy and all is well. Definitely a state of denial.
Wishing you and your family happiness this season, at least for a little while.
You already know what I think about politics:) It's fundamentally about wielding power to punish your enemies and reward you and your friends. I don't believe any of these politicians enter the game with noble intentions.
Hello my dear @deirdyweirdy,
I think many will settle for lining their pockets and rewarding friends. I don't think everyone has the punishment agenda :)) Unfortunately, we have such a conspicuous example of your principle (punish enemies and reward friends) in my country now that it's hard to argue against that principle.
Hope it's not as cold in Ireland as it is here right now...I'll share a picture I took from my front window (through the screen!) a short time ago:
Eek! Thankfully we don't get much snow here and we're having a warm December with 56F today. I hope you're feeling a little better than yesterday.
Watch this! They are all psychopaths!
Coincidentally, I just watched this. Corbett says we now live in a pathocracy, all leaders psychopaths, and that psychiatry has been developed to be used as a weapon for the ruling class. This one is a must see.
I didn't watch the video but did look up Corbett and pathocracy. Found this "Conversation", which explains the top points of this idea.
It's interesting that in recent days I've thought about learned helplessness. At some point, you just stop resisting. Also, I have in the past studied the work of Thomas Szasz, who questions the legitimacy of traditional psychiatry.
The problem with the DSM is that it is essentially a political and normative document. And yet, the fate of millions hangs on its prescriptions.
What to do when objective reality is elusive--but isn't it always elusive?
I was just thinking about this. I don't think it's learned, I think we have been conditioned. We outsource our finances, our childrens educations, our thinking,our healing, and our food. Who isn't helpless in at least one of these?
I am living proof of how this is used against dissedents. I was a medical dissident in 2021, when vaccine hesitancy made it to the DSM. There I was for any medical professional to see, crazy. A friend of mine recently asked me if I didn't think Trump was the worst president of all time. I said "We've survived worse than Trump." She asked, of course, who. I could unequivocally state that Biden was much worse in my opinion, because during his administration I was being deemed a domestic terrorist, an enemy of the people, a grandma killer, and I feared being shipped off to concentration camps set up for the likes of me.
Less elusive when there is a corrupt central government. Quite possibly, all types of central governments tend to corrupt. Corbett gets to that toward the end, and very briefly.
We are all one law away from prison.