An interesting exercise.................

 ...........would be to study the net worth of members of Congress prior to their election and after they have served multiple terms.  Just curious.

A distinction must be made when aristocracies and democracies accuse each other of facilitating corruption.  In aristocratic governments, those who are placed at the head of affairs are rich men, who are desirous only of power.  In democracies, statesman are poor and have their fortunes to make.  The consequence is that in aristocratic states the rulers are rarely accessible to corruption and have little craving for money, while the reverse is the case in democratic nations.

-Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume 1, Chapter VIII, 1835