If you want a simple explanation of the root cause of America’s political and economic woes, this chart represents it.

As Teddy Roosevelt so famously said:

There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done … Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs.

Funds originating from corporate interests via political lobbyists, usually under the guise of campaign contributions in exchange for favorable legislation, not only distorts democracy but interferes with free market capitalism. Anyone who says otherwise, either has their hand in the cookie jar or doesn’t understand that free markets reward the best businesses with the best business model.

Hat tip Tim Iacono