Re:Declining trust in government is denting democracy (2017)
by ryandrake on Saturday June 19, 2021 @01:29PM
(#27562431)
I don't trust the government because it's not really representative. The founders put so much effort into making sure congress was regionally representative, where states have their representatives and districts have representatives, etc. But nothing ensures that congress is demographically representative.
Congress is 40% lawyers [1] whereas the national lawyer population os 0.2% [2]. This is actually much better than in the mid 19th century where 80% of Congress were lawyers.
About 52% of Congress are millionaires, whereas only ~7% or so of the public are millionaires [3].
Even though a record number of women serve in Congress, it's still 27% compared to roughly 50% of the public.
Around 61% of Congress is 50 years old or older [5], whereas the number for the US population is around 34%.
The people who claim to represent us in Congress are not really representative of us at all.
Congress is 40% lawyers [1] whereas the national lawyer population os 0.2% [2]. This is actually much better than in the mid 19th century where 80% of Congress were lawyers.
About 52% of Congress are millionaires, whereas only ~7% or so of the public are millionaires [3].
Even though a record number of women serve in Congress, it's still 27% compared to roughly 50% of the public.
Around 61% of Congress is 50 years old or older [5], whereas the number for the US population is around 34%.
The people who claim to represent us in Congress are not really representative of us at all.
1: https://thepractice.law.harvard.edu/article/declining-domina...
2: https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2...
3: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/08/fac...
4: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/15/a-record-nu...
5: https://www.legistorm.com/congress_by_numbers.html