A question about politics...?

as Ghandi once put it, "you are the change you want to make in this world." if you feel pionately about policy and want to make changes on the political level, who better to do it than yourself? you know you and you know what you want, why waste money on someone else who may lose interest in the cause or who may suck at the job? also, who says $400,000 is not a lot of money?!? Even if it is not, the President, as you used as an example in your question, gets extra perks (aka free stuff) along with his salary. My final point it to just remember that not all politicians are corrupt and are in it for the money. there are several policy makers that want to see a positive change in the world and the best way to make that change is on the political level.