1288 Millionerror

I read some interesting statistics the other day. On the one hand, it was positive economic news. On the other, well, you be the judge.
As we’ve foundered in the doldrums of a wimpy recovery, millions of Americans are still out of work. Unemployment continues to hover around ten percent. Sure, you can say that means ninety percent employed, but to the ten percent out of work, wacko anti-government ideas seem more and more attractive.
And to those on the edge, and suffering in underemployment, a similar jumping onto the disaffected continuum, from tea parties to terrorism, seems imminent.
Economic ennui is not a prescription for social stability.
But here’s the good news. Our millionaires are doing better. The number of US millionaires rose fifteen percent in 2009, bravely surging through the pit of our great recession. It’s true that they fell twenty-one percent in 2008 but, hey, they’re recovering.
So if 4.7 millionaires each have a million dollars, that’s at least 4.7 trillion laying around. Of course, many of those millionaires are actually billionaires, which helps account for the fact that the 4.7 of them own 55% of all US wealth.
As the population of the United States is 307 million or so, that means that the other 302 million of us have to divvy up the other 45%.
Sounds fair to me.
I once read an article where it said the wealthiest five percent of the people pay fifty-five percent of the taxes. Funny how the math seems to work out.
Let’s hope the poor folk don’t catch on it’s because the suffering rich folk have fifty-five percent of the wealth.
And I hope for gosh sake, the millionaires don’t make the millionerror of complaining about paying the new sin-tax on fancy imported tea.
America, ya gotta love it.