During a segment on All In with Chris Hayes, the host ran a clip of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders discussing the stranglehold that big money has on politics. To be more specific, just 158 wealthy families are providing more than half of the seed money used to push legislation and fund campaigns.

As Hayes noted, the top one percent may be a generous estimate given that these 158 families are a fraction of the top one percent.

Farron Cousins is the executive editor of The Trial Lawyer magazine and a contributing writer at DeSmogBlog.com. He is the co-host / guest host for Ring of Fire Radio. His writings have appeared on Alternet, Truthout, and The Huffington Post. Farron received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida in 2005 and became a member of American MENSA in 2009. Follow him on Twitter @farronbalanced