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>If you force people to divest their portfolios before taking public office you will reduce the pool of people willing to serve.

Dissuading the wealthy from seeking office sounds like a feature, not a bug to me.

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> Dissuading the wealthy from seeking office sounds like a feature, not a bug to me.

Around 55% of Americans own stock.

"The wealthiest 10% of Americans own a record 89% of all U.S. stocks" — CNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-...

If you aren't one of that "wealthiest 10%" it would not be difficult to divest your stock holdings in exchange for an index fund.

I would presume that almost everyone qualified to be a federal judge to be among the wealthiest 10% - the median lawyer income is approximately 90-th percentile, and I would presume that the seniority and skills needed for such a position would disqualify most of the less experienced and/or weaker lawyers.

Income is not the same as wealth. They are correlated, but you're blurring lines. The wealthiest individuals accrue a negligible amount of their wealth from income. And the power law relationship between wealth and stock ownership doesn't end when you cross the 90th percentile either.

That includes things like index funds. The vast majority of people do not own individual equities.

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