Re: our money comes from parasites

Mathematician and Monetary Reformer Ardeshir Mehta

From: Ardeshir Mehta
Sent: March 6, 2010
Subject: [Square-Two] Re: our money comes from parasites

On 6-Mar-10, at 3:46 AM, Dick Eastman quoted Tolstoy as having written:

"The oppressor wants money neither as a medium of exchange, -- nor as a measure of value, -- for he will himself determine the value of everything, -- but only for the convenience it affords of exercising violence; and this convenience consists in the fact that money may be saved up, and is the most convenient means of holding in slavery the majority of mankind."

Indeed.

Consider the following:

The population of the USA is around 310 million.

The median 4-family home earned a total of around $70,000 (gross - before taxes) in the one-year period October 1 2008 to September 30, 2009. (Look it up.)

So the ordinary Americans earned a total of around $(310,000,000 x 70,000/4) = $5,425,000,000, 000 in the one year period. That's a little less than five and a half trillion dollars.

That's also around $17,500 per capita. Of course some families earned more, some earned less.

But America's GDP in 2009 has been estimated at over $14 trillion.

So into whose pockets did the other eight and a half trillion dollars go?

Guess!

+++++

Consider the following hypothetical scenario.

If America's GDP had been distributed equally among all Americans, every single American - man woman and child - would have received over $45,000 in that one-year period. That's $180,000 for a family of four. Just imagine what YOUR family could have done with such an income.

Even if the distribution had been skewed so that the richest families received six times what the poorest received, so that the richest four-person families received $420,000 a year, the poorest four-person families would still have received $70,000 a year - which is what the MEDIAN four-person family receives today.

Under this hypothetical scenario, even if taxes were to take away one-third of a family's income, each four-person family would still be left with:

$280,000 a year of disposable income for the richest families,

and

$47,000 for the poorest.

(That's income AFTER taxes, mind you.)

Under these hypothetical conditions, the richest would be able to afford two-million- dollar homes (a 25-year mortgage on such a home would be around $8,000 month, by no means inconsiderable, but since the richest would have over $23,000 of disposable after-taxes income a month, they could afford it.)

And the richest could also afford $200,000 cars: the monthly payment on such a car would be less than $4000, so even if they had a two-million- dollar home - not that they necessarily would - they could still afford one.

More importantly, however, even the poorest family would be able to afford a home and a car (or even two): they would be modest homes and cars, of course, but by no means inadequate.

Just imagine how YOUR family would fare under this scenario. Just imagine.

And now tell me whether you think it's worth your while - even monetarily - to work towards making this scenario a reality ... ?