Political Campaign Funding

Whether we like it or not money is at the center of politics. There is no way to be in politics without money. Most people don't have enough money to run for office themselves and they have to ask others for their support. Many politicians don't like this part of their job and many people don't like that so much money is needed for politics.

If you wanted to get a job at a retail store and they told you that to be hired you would have to raise ten thousand dollars first before they would even look at your application would you take the job? Probably not, but that is how politics works. You must raise a lot of money before anyone even looks at whether or not you are qualified to be elected. The next presidential election will probably cost a billion dollars to win. This doesn't seem fair to candidates who could potentially be very good for our government but don't have a lot of money. We are preventing ourselves from having the best people working for us because they have to raise a lot of money to have a chance at the job. Currently there is a homeless man running for mayor of the town I live in, while he probably isn't the best choice regardless of monetary status, if he had more money he would have had a much better chance at winning.

There is public funding available for some campaigns but it is not nearly as much as is required to win the election so no one who actually wants to win an election can use the public funding. Maybe if the public funding was raised to a more competitive level it would be more useful for candidates and there would be more qualified, less wealthy candidates available to be elected into important government positions. However increasing the amount of public funding a candidate would receive would cost taxpayers more money which would not be accepted. Another option would be to limit how much can be spent on a political campaign. If all the candidates were only able to spend the same amount and no one could spend more than another the less known candidates could get recognition and money wouldn't be an issue in the election.

The current election funding system favors wealthier candidates instead of focusing on qualifications. It is important that the system be changed so that we get the most qualified people running the government and not the wealthiest.