How do politicians get rich?

[sadaist]

During the recent campaign, Sharon Angle in NV had a debate with Harry Reid. She mentioned how he was not worth a whole lot of money when he first took office years ago, but is a millionaire now.

Today, Glenn Beck made mention of a few other politicians as well. Pelosis net worth was much, much lower prior to her ever taking office.

I'm sure it isn't just Democrats. Those are just 2 names that got me thinking. What if we looked at every politicians net worth just prior to taking office, and now? How the fuck are these guys becoming multi-millionaires while holding a public service office? The salaries they get are decent, but not enough to make them a millionaire.

I just think this is something that the voting public need to take a close look at. And no one in office now will ever propose anything that makes it mandatory that these guys publicly disclose how they get their millions. Because both sides are in on it.

I guess they could write stupid book that no one cares to read, and some high powered corporate lobbyist would figure a way to buy a couple hundred thousand copies. How many copies of crappy books are sitting in some Public Storage unit in Backwater, Virginia? You oppose this legislation, we'll make sure your book is on the best seller list.

I wanna be a politician when I grow up.

[GAR]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion

Facebook has approximately 1,400 employees and offices in eight countries.<sup id="cite_ref-67" class="reference">[65]</sup> Regarding Facebook ownership, Mark Zuckerberg owns 24% of the company, Accel Partners owns 10%, Dustin Moskovitz owns 6%, Digital Sky Technologies owns 5%, Eduardo Saverin owns 5%, Sean Parker owns 4%, Peter Thiel owns 3%, Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners own between 1 to 2% each, Microsoft owns 1.3%, Li Ka-shing owns 0.75%, the Interpublic Group owns less than 0.5%, a small group of current and former employees and celebrities own less than 1% each, including Matt Cohler, Jeff Rothschild, California U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Chris Hughes, and Owen Van Natta, while Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus have sizable holdings of the company, and the remaining 30% or so are owned by employees, undisclosed number of celebrities, and outside investors.<sup id="cite_ref-68" class="reference">[66]</sup> Adam D'Angelo, chief technology officer and friend of Zuckerberg, resigned in May 2008. Reports claimed that he and Zuckerberg began quarreling, and that he was no longer interested in partial ownership of the company.<sup id="cite_ref-69" class="reference">[67]</sup>