I don't think it's strange that professions with higher qualifications would be overrepresented in a parliament.
The interesting question, to me, would rather be class background. Can you come from a working class family, become a lawyer/CEO/whatever and then have a career?
Agreed, that's a much more interesting question. I would love to see some studies on that (would be fascinating to see how various Western countries compare).
Why?
Anyway, we have two variables here: income/wealth and education, which are not necessarily overlapping. The original question was about wealth as a (usual) requirement for a political career in the US, not educational background.
Secondly the general question about social mobility, that Gustav raised (becoming a CEO, lawyer etc.), is not necessarily related to access to parliament. By broadening the topic to general social mobility you get a much more blurred and unfocused discussion (which is also outside of the purpose of this thread).
If you guys wanna discuss social mobility in general you should create a separate thread for that.
Um, ok. But you realize that it's hard to imagine a system in which say a homeless crack addict would run a successful political campaign? That's an extreme example, but someone who has no resources, social or economic nor experience in say leading people or managing anything would be disadvantaged in the realm of politics. That is hardly strange. And I believe this tends to be true in most countries. The difference in Scandinavia is rather that we have more professional politicians who haven't had a private sector job since they were 14 or something.
Any reason why you can't conduct a serious debate? Your tone is very condescending (such as using absurd examples) and you are using strawman arguments. If you are going to continue I suggest you quote the things you disagree with and why, so we at least have some common ground.
Leadership and policy making experience can be obtained in a wide range of sectors. Business experience is generally not the best background for successful political leadership and people with business background will have a particular outlook that is generally pro-elite/vested interests no matter their social background.
Scandinavia has produced a number of excellent political leaders with a non-academic background in trade unions and farmer organizations, your current PM Stefan Løfven is a recent example.
