Political donations are not a necessity for the country to work properly.
Pets may be a luxury, but once you have them feeding them is arguably a necessity. What's missing is whether they are buying more luxurious food than necessary.
Anyway, in the end it's a completely arbitrary comparison.
Point taken about having to feed them once you have them.
And I agree that political donations are not a necessity, but only if donations are banned, which is not the case. If your opponents are getting donations, then you are at a net loss if you don't. In that sense, being idealistic does not get you supporters, and donations really are necessary.
Canadians spend less on campaigns than the "biggest spenders" on that chart combined, with 37 million citizens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_political_financing_in_...
During the 2010 presidential election Brazilians spent $2 billion on campaigns and have ~200 million citizens.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-01-24/world/world_global-campai...