The median net worth of members of the US Congress – 435 representatives and 100 senators – is a comfortable $440,000, more than six times the wealth of your average American household.
Among US lawmakers there are also haves and have-nots with the bank accounts of the 50 richest members holding a tidy $1.6 billion.
That translates to small beer across the Pacific.
The wealthiest 50 delegates to China’s National People’s Congress, a body that acts as a rubber stamp for Communist Party decisions, control $94.7 billion, according to the Hurun Rich List.
While it seems fair to say that these days you have to be rich to be elected in the US and that being wealthy in China ingratiates you with the Communist Party, Mongolia takes the concept to a whole new level.
Mongolian parliamentarians and high-ranking government officials have been required since 2007 to disclose their assets and net worth to the Asian nation’s Independent Authority Against Corruption.
The Mongolist blog has crunched the numbers and it looks like Mongolia’s top politicians have managed to expand their asset base much quicker than the rate of economic growth in the country.
According to latest 2012 annual filing, current parliament members are sitting on 1,137 billion tugrik in total net assets or approximately $785 million. Of the 74 MPs that disclosed their wealth, the top four control about 64% of the total.
Those are impressive numbers particularly when you consider Mongolian politicians’ hoard relative to the size of their country’s economy.
US Congress members’ combined fortunes is a rounding error when you consider America’s $15.7 trillion economy. Chinese politicians fare better. They control 1.1% of the globe’s second largest economy.
The rulers of Mongolia’s fewer than 3 million citizens have amassed moolah to the equivalent of 7.6% of the country’s GDP.
Put another way, if US politicians concentrated the wealth of America to the same degree they’d each be worth more than $2.2 billion.
Click here for more from The Mongolist.
Image of Russian President Putin meeting deputies of the Great State Hural by Wikimedia Commons
3 Comments
babennett
The good paying wage in Ulaanbaatar is 1,000,000 Tugriks a month. They can live quite well on this. It is even less in the Ger section. There is no Social safety net like Welfare or Unemployment Insurance. I still like living and working there, just wish they had more Government support.
Dude
I doubt the numbers are right when it comes to the Mongolian politicians truthfully declaring their income and net worth. Most only declares fraction of what they are actually worth; case being Bayartsogt, former Minister of Finance and current Parliament member, had a secret Swiss account which was revealed earlier this year. He never declared that and I am positive that he has more hidden accounts and assets and he is not the only one. I seriously doubt that the politicians are worth 7.6% of the country’s GDP. It is much higher, maybe even 50%.
Ichbin EsNicht
Most Mongolian politicians steal like robbers. Most are corrupt. All
while ordinary citizens have no access to clean water, doctors and
medicine. My friends little boy is dying of leukemia because I can’t
even import the needed medication for him. Mongolia’s leaders are evil
and one day the people will hang them in the streets!