They understand how lucrative it is for lawyers. Check what they were doing prior to being politicians.
Yes I know that alot of them are/were lawyers (and thats a problem) but then they fall into the lawyer category. More of them where not lawyers, im still holing on to my knowledge argument.
Most politicians start out as lawyers.
As far as I know, that's an Americanism. I don't know of any other country that concentrates so many legal professionals in their political system.
Most other countries also don't have nearly as many lawyers per capita as the US.
The UK does.
It may be a Western-ism for sure but I (a Brit) was thinking mostly about the UK when I wrote it.