Money and power

IN SOME countries, the best way to get rich is to go into politics. In America it is the other way round: the best way to break into politics is to be rich. Every year Roll Call, a sister paper of The Economist, compiles a list of the richest members of Congress. What is striking is how few of them have grown rich because they are politicians (though many will cash in on their connections after they retire).

The richest person on the list, Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, amassed an estimated $357m by founding a firm that makes car alarms. That is a colossal fortune, but nowhere near enough to earn him a place on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans—you need at least $1.3 billion for that. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, is at 39 the youngest congressman in the top ten: he made his pile from BlueMountain.com, a firm that lets you send digital birthday cards with cute dogs on them, and ProFlowers, an online florist.

Entrepreneurs are not very common in Congress, however. Lawyers dominate: an earlier Roll Call report found that most senators and a third of House members listed that as their occupation. Plenty of lawyers become millionaires, but few become ultra-rich. Michael McCaul and Scott Peters, both lawyers, make the congressional top ten only because they married money. Ten of the 25 richest members got there via marriage or inheritance.

The most troubling thing about the list is how narrow a range of experience lawmakers draw on. Many have spent their whole lives in politics. Only one, John Delaney of Maryland, has been the boss of a publicly traded company.