Breaking It Down: ‘The Political One Percent of the One Percent’ | | United RepublicUnited Republic
Sunlight Foundation report shows how power is held by extremely few hands

Report finds only 0.01 percent of Americans make most political contributions. Credit: Shutterstock
Making waves all over the web recently was the Sunlight Foundation’s excellent
analysis of political contributions, showing how a tiny portion (0.01 percent!) of Americans – mainly wealthy elites, who Sunlight dubs
The One Percent of the One Percent– provided the large majority of funding for 2010 election campaigns:
In the 2010 election cycle, the average
One Percent of One Percent spent $28,913, more [on campaign contributions] than the [entire] median individual income
of $26,364.
Lots of news outlets have picked up on the analysis.
The Washington Post
noted how the report found many of the richest donors supported Democrats.
NPR’s All Things Considered
interviewed Lee Drutman, a data fellow with the Sunlight Foundation who provided more insight into the report.
The Nation was also
surprised by the findings:
To put this in somewhat more dramatic terms, almost a quarter of the total donations from individuals to nearly every actor in the political system came from a group that’s slightly larger than the undergraduate class at a state university like Virginia Tech.
The report is reader-friendly and features endlessly interesting graphs and statistics. It’s worth a read, especially if you’re in the 99.99 percent.
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