[trendia]

Not only are they mediocre in skill, but studies suggest politicians spend up to 60% of their time raising donations. That means they're developing skills in raising money, not designing legislation that benefits their constituency.

Further, expertise comes not just from the amount of time you spend on something but how much feedback you receive and how you respond to that feedback. Few, if any, legislators will measure the economic or social impact of their bills 1-5 years after it's enacted.

What you end up with is a lot of people who are convinced they're doing a whole lot of good, when in fact they're more or less pushing paper and making their donors happy.