Daniel Nguyen

Democracy and Wealth

The idea of having democracy while wealth is concentrated in the hands of few is
plausible in theory but definitely not possible for the foreseeable future, at least in American
society. Some believe that American democracy is for naught, simply because of the fact that
most politicians respond almost exclusively to the desires of special interests and the wealthiest
citizens, which goes against the idea of a people-governed society (Wheelan, 2014).
The difficulty of running a nation such as the U.S. while maintaining democracy is also
impossible in practice. Alexander Hamilton, one of the framers of the American Constitution, did
not design our government with the intent of implementing a true democracy. In a democracy,
Each member of the population expresses his or her opinion on each issue through voting,
(Clark, 2010). If all citizens of the U.S. were to run the government equally, then there would be
chaos in trying to keep everyone informed due to the nature of having so many people involved.
It is far too time consuming and also requires a lot of effort and money, so the U.S. runs a
representative democracy instead where citizens elect a few officials called politicians to
represent their concerns and needs to simplify the process.
This process however is not as simple and quick as one may think. Many politicians are
influenced by large businesses and wealthy individuals to make decisions for their interests
instead of the people who elected them into office. This shift in control is the result of a
continuously widening gap of wealth between the rich and the middle class, and subsequently the
poor. Statistically, it is said that the richest 1 percent of Americans control a third of the
country's total wealth, and therefore this one percent also controls politics (Roos, 2011).
Wheelan also agrees with this statement because his article accentuates this idea: It's Official: In

America, Affluence Equals Influence, which undermines the power of the people and
emphasizes the influence of the rich individuals.
This controversy is brought back to the politicians and equality as a whole. Since the
basis of democracy lies in its inherently equal nature, it is correct to assume that all members of
the society must be equal For the democracy to function, this equality must be present in the
individual vote, (Clark). If there is such a prevalent inequality that exists between the U.S.
citizens, how can the government claim to be democratic while its politicians are mere puppets to
the wealthy individuals? This stark contrast between the definition of a democracy, as Clark puts
it, and the current state of things in America shows that democracy cannot work while wealth is
concentrated in the hands of few.

References
Clark, Josh. "Does Democracy Work?" How Stuff Works. 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.
Roos, Dave. "Is It True That 1 Percent of Americans Control a Third of the Wealth?" How Stuff
Works. 15 Nov. 2011. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.
Wheelan, Charles. "It's Official: In America, Affluence Equals Influence." USA News. 22 Apr.
2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.