It’s well known that the underlying central theme of the 2016 Election is income inequality. It’s driving the protests, rally’s and conversations in a myriad of ways. What I want to do here is to quantify the role of money in everyone’s life to illustrate the stark differences between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots and the 99% vs the 1%. No esoteric economics, or tax and monetary policy/history. But I will crunch a lot of numbers, so bear with me.
WHAT IS MONEY
Money has four basic functions:
- It is a medium of exchange.
- It is a measure of value.
- It is a standard of comparison.
- It is a store of quantity.
This essay will focus on the last point, and attempt to quantify income inequalities and provide visual references everyone can relate to.
START WITH A STANDARD U.S. PAPER BILL
The volume (Wikipedia) of a U.S. paper bill is 6.14” X 2.61” X 0.0043” = 0.0689 CI (Cubic inch using engineering notation ). As the standard of quantity we will use the $100. bill — known as the Benjamin’s.
1.0/0.0689 = 14.5 bills per CI = $1,450.
14.5 X 1760 CI = 25,520 bills per CF,
or ~ $2.5 Million. These are our base monetary quantities.
The 2015 annual income for the lowest 90% of Americans (per Laura Clawson) is ~$31,000. As an aside: Raising the minimum wage to $15. could increase that amount to ~$40,000. (unverified estimate).
Next, take your standard 12 oz aluminum (Al) beverage can: The one everyone drinks their soda and beer from. (Couldn’t find an image in the DK Image Library). The actual volume is 355 ml or 21.66 CI. 14 .5 X 21.66 =~ 314 X $100. = $31,400. That is the monetary value, in $100. bills that will fit in a standard Al beverage can based on its volume.
CONCLUSION: The annual salary of bottom 90% of American’s (in $100. bills) will fit in a single 12 oz Al beverage can.
Stifle the fury, it’s going to get worse.
Some containers I measured or information was available (size may vary):
- Small Lunch Sack = 157 CI = $227,500.
- Shopping Bag = 1185 CI = $1.7 M.
- Luggage Carry-on = 2772 CI = $ 4.0 M.
- Large Suitcase = 4560 CI = $6.6 M.
- Med Pickup Truck = 35 CF = $87.5 M.
- Dump Truck = 270 CF = $675 M.
- 10’ Standard Shipping Container = 680 CF = $1.7 B.
- 20’ Standard Shipping Container = 1360 CF = $3.4 B.
- 40’ Standard Shipping Container = 2720 CF = 6.8 B.
There are other containers that can be used to represent other amounts.
ENTRY AMOUNT FOR THE TOP 10%
Bottom 90% = $31,000. (Mostly cash from salaries)
Estimates are derived from CNN Money, Financial Times and Forbes. As the amounts become larger, more income is from net worth (stocks, bonds, property) rather than salaries.
Top 10% = $31,000. 1 Aluminum Can
Top 1% = $380,000. 1 Medium Lunch Sack
Top 0.1% = $1.7M 1 Shopping Bag
Top 0.01% = 9.1M 1 Large Suitcase and 1 Carry-on
Top 0.001% = 59.6M Small Pickup Truck
Top 0.0001% = 470M Dump Truck
Forbes Top 400 = 1.7B 10’ Shipping Container
Forbes Top 180 = 3.4B 20’ Shipping Container
Forbes Top 70 = 6.8B 40’ Shipping Container
And the winner is: (drumroll) Bill Gates @ $76B = 11- 40’ shipping containers.
Note: I live about 20 miles away from Mr. Gates and am in the Aluminum Can Class, along with many of my neighbors. Yippee! I’m trying to visualize 11- 40’ shipping containers parked in the driveway of his Medina mansion.
Caveat: Mr. Gates has donated a large chunk of his fortune, along with several others in the Forbes top 70, to eradicating poverty, providing medicines and education. Other billionaires, not so much.
Since Donald Trump hasn’t revealed his net worth, we can posit that he is in Dump Truck territory at the very least. I just can’t miss an opportunity to trash Trumpty Dumpty.
NOW WHAT?
So, how do we fight income inequality in today’s polarized political environment? The Bernie Sanders revolution brought to the forefront the issues described by Occupy Wall Street back in 2011 plus some others. How do we continue to push the income inequality issue in such a way that doesn’t unleash the establishment backlash experienced by the OWS protestors?
First, we need to get a lot more people petitioning their politicians. For example: 1- 40’ container of $100. bills could give every member of congress $12. 6 million. That’s 2 large suitcases. All they would need to do is back up to the container, load up and drive off. It pays for the campaign and ensures access and fealty of the politicians to the rich donors. How does your puny little Aluminum can of dollars that you can’t afford to give them stand up to that? Monetarily, it can’t. But, remember, most of the people in the Aluminum can class are voters, and they’re the ones that elect the political candidates. It boils down to how you use your voting power and lever it to the advantage of the Aluminum Can Class majority.
Standard Political Quote “The first duty of a politician is to get elected, everything else is a splendid redundancy." Politicians need to be terrorized into listening to the voters over the donors. How do we do that?
The First Amendment provides for freedom of speech, religion, press and assembly. It also provides the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. And, there are a lot of grievances out there that need to be redressed, but are not because of the influence of money in politics. But, it also doesn’t specify the manner of redress, except that it be peaceful. It doesn’t specify whether the redress be positive or negative. Everyone also has the right to to express themselves, including telegraphing their vote. How do we do that?
We need an action plan that can be implemented immediately, that:
- Allows for redress of grievances.
- Provides a visual reminder of the present inequalities.
- Gets politicians to respond to your vote rather than money.
- Provides better access to politicians representing you.
- Starts correcting the income and other inequalities we are experiencing.
- Elects those that will enact programs that address the inequalities.
When I was researching a book I wrote several years ago, it was evident in the past that when tribes/countries fought, the winner claimed the spoils — treasure, land, population — and the leader(s) of the losers were usually executed. Fortunately, we are largely, but not entirely past those barbaric practices. So, how do we ‘execute’ our politicians politically nowadays? We vote them out of office. We terminate their political careers, and put them out to pasture. Unfortunately, they are a pesky bunch and keep trying to recycle themselves. For the politicians, obscenely rich and power brokers we restrict ‘execution’ to taking away the thing(s) they value the most: power, money, influence. Strip them clean and send them to the end of the line for a do-over.
How do we let them know that they’re past their sell date? Hint: What are the euphemisms for terminating someone. We know that Trumpty Dumpty likes to ‘fire’ people. How would you like to ‘execute’ them? How would you like to ‘execute’ the richies and power brokers that have endlessly gamed the financial and other institutions, with government complicity, to their advantage? Turn your imaginations loose.
Finally: I would like to propose the lowly, ubiquitous 12 oz Aluminum can as the (visual) symbol of (income) inequality for this election and beyond. More to come.
Part 2: Will be out in a few days. I want to include your contributions, comments and ideas in a follow-up diary.