this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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I understand why someone might think that, but it's not true, except perhaps in the most corrupt of countries.
Yup. I actually know and work with politicians. It's a sales job alright; the legislation is pretty secondary regardless of who it benefits. You can see laws that fuck everyone rich or poor being passed sometimes, if they sound good.
I don't disagree that some are like that, and the only reason tax laws in many countries in particular are so complicated are because of politicians squeezing in exceptions that benefit them.
But it's far, far from "all laws". The quality of life and legality for average people has changed a huge amount for the better. Even in my lifetime in the UK. When I was a child, it was illegal to be homosexual. You were openly discriminated for being black, Irish, foreign, fat, old, young. Now there are laws to protect against that. My wife's mother had to get her brother to sign the paperwork to buy a house because even in the 1950s, women couldn't get a mortgage without a man guaranteeing it. Those are just a few examples.
If you're American, then yeah, maybe your system is skewed far to the rich beyond what most countries do. It's long been the case that justice in the US doesn't apply to the rich, but the US is not everywhere and not everything, despite what the current news cycles might tell you.
I was agreeing with you, FWIW. They're not puppets run by some shadowy group, and what they actually do is very public (if you bother to look). My country televises parliament, and publishes all legislation. The US does something similar.
Over the long run, conditions have improved, in spite of representative democracy being a cluster-fuck.