We're in trouble because most people just don't understand the scale of money. Million, Billion, Trillion, is not just a one or two consonant difference.
So, let's put this in perspective – I would ask whenever you try to discuss politics etc with your families and friends you use this method to get them to understand the scale of the problem. Most every one of them has a cell phone and the cell phone has a calculator, if they don't believe you, have them do the math themselves.
So – 50 Billionaire Families with a net worth of over $1,000,000,000,000.00 have spent (mostly for Republicans) $600,000,000.00 dollars in the 2024 election cycle.
First, how much is this of their net worth?
1,000,000,000,000 / 600,000,000 = 0.0006.
OR 0.06% of their total net worth.
How much money would the 'Median' American need to spend to equal this $600,000,000.00?
US Median Net Worth (HALF of all Americans have this or less) was $192,700.00 in 2022.
0,06% of their net worth is $115.62 (0.0006 * 192,700 = 115.62)
NOTE: This is 50 Families of Billionaires, so they're actually only spending about $2.31 each (50 * 2.31 = 115.5) to proportional to the net worth of the Median American, influence our elections/Politics.
SO, for what is less than a price of a cup of coffee (proportionally) each one of these 50 BILLIONAIRE families is exerting a huge amount of influence on our elections.
BUT it gets even worse….
Lets say that HALF of all Americans represented by the 'Median' Net Worth figure above, each wanted to pay their $2.31 each to band together to 'fight' the 50 Billionaires and dilute their ad buys/campaign donations, etc.
So, 330,000,000 US citizens / 2 = 165,000,000 people.
165,000,000 (the lower half of the median, every man, woman, and child) scrapes up their proportional $2.31 and they have a whopping. $381,150,000.00 dollars.
381 < 600.
In fact, Just by 'happy' coincidence, $381 Million is just about 3/5's $600 Million.
165 MILLION people, spending proportionally the same amount of their net worth as 50 BILLIONAIRES, still can't amass the same level of economic power to match their spending.
We can make it _EVEN WORSE_.
Billionaires make money not by their own labours, but by rent seeking behaviour and 'Investing'.
Let us presume they are only making 5% on their net worth in interest (Most of the wealthy would NEVER accept a paltry 5% return)
So, $1,000,000,000,000 * .05 (5.0%) = $50,000,000,000 (50 BILLION).
$600 MILLION is just 1.2% (0.012) of 50 BILLION. So for less than 2% of the interest they earn on their assets, E.G. they are never ever even touching their principal ad they still get enormously richer at $49,400,000,000.00, They are purchasing the political fate of the United States.
Again, proportionally to the MEDIAN NET WORTH in the US….
If you earned 5% on your $192,700 = $9,635.00 to spend as much, proportionally, of money earned just from your interest income, you would be spending just $115.62 of your interest income to change the fate of the United States.
Your ONLY effective way to combat this is to VOTE and to VOTE AGAINST the interests of 50 Families.
And if the 50 Families 'Win' by collectively spending what amounts, for them, to less than the cost of a cup of coffee to you from your net worth, then you have to deny them your labors until they accede to your demands.
Every Billionaire is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
Not a SINGLE BILLIONAIRE under the age of 30 earned their fortune, all of it was inherited.
Every Billionaire, yearly, has a carbon 'expenditure' equal to that of 1,000,000 people from the lowest 90% of the world's population.
With just 2,781 Billionaires on the planet, they emit the equivalent carbon of 2,781,000,000 people.
A bit over a THIRD of the entire population of the planetary
A THIRD of all Carbon Emissions made by humans comes from 2,781 people flying around in private jets for vegas weekends, a surprise visit to Paris for a spouse/child, jetting off to a music festival or Burning Man, and having multiple yachts and driving 2 million dollar Bugatti's or mere $250,000 Bentleys and Porsches.
And it costs them barely anything to buy up the media and the airwaves and convince you that they shouldn't have to pay taxes, and that you should admire them instead. It costs them pennies to influence our governments in their own favor and at YOUR expense.
There should be no Billionaires, and the political and Economic systems that have allowed it to happen have done so by making the rest of us pay a price for 50 Families spending on the US elections, or 2,781 people out of the worlds 8,000,000,000 controlling the majority of the worlds wealth and thus the power that comes with it.