Members of Congress aren’t like you and me—they’re substantially richer.
Roll Call reported this week that the total net worth of Congress was more than $2 billion in 2010. That’s about 25% more than in 2008. That number doesn’t include the value of members personal residences or other non-income generating property, which members are not required to disclose.
That means that the mean net worth the men and women who serve in Congress—not including the value of their homes—is around $3.2 million. The Wall Street Journal estimates that the average wealth of the richest 1% is about $14 million, so that doesn’t place members of Congress on average in the 1%. But it doesn’t put them in the 50% either.
The mean net worth of Americans in 2010 was about $182,000. On average members of Congress, in other words, were worth more than 17 times as much as the average American
