The reality of someone having a billion dollars is almost impossible to grasp. You change one little letter in millionaire, from an “m” to a “b” and what’s the big deal?
Why even think about it?
We think about it because when we have billionaires, we have a big problem for democracy, which is government by the people. Louis D. Brandeis said, “We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
How does billionaire wealth hurt democracy?
Billionaires don’t just buy jets and yachts, islands and parties. BILLIONAIRES BUY POWER. They buy politicians who make decisions that affect all of us, from real safety and justice to meaningful education and healthcare. And they pay for the information that gets inside our heads and the heads of our children. They buy media outlets: TV and radio stations, publishing houses of everything from “local” newspapers to school textbooks, ads of all kinds including broadcast, billboard, print media, and the internet. In this way, they buy the power to affect what we believe is reality, and whether or not we believe there are alternatives that we can actually choose.
Our ability to live the healthy, safe, and meaningful lives we want for ourselves, our communities, and our children has been limited by the idea of TINA: There Is No Alternative. The TINA lie was articulated, over and over, by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the Reagan years, and articulated in many ways by many others since then. Although it is completely false, it has seeped into us. But we can dump that lie.
Bernie Sanders
Last year presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said, “There should be no billionaires. We are going to tax their extreme wealth and invest in working people.” He didn’t mean these people shouldn’t exist, just that no one should have a billion dollars while others don’t have the basics of life. Most people agree. Some, who have much less than 1% of a billion dollars — i.e. less than $10,000,000 — disagree! They believe people should be able to keep what they’ve “earned” during and after their lives.
What is a billion dollars? What does it take to earn it?
Let’s say you did not get billionaire parents. You lost out on the most effective way to become a billionaire.
So, if you want to work for a living and work up a billion dollars, how can you do it? Well, if you get a well-paid job at age 20, and work full-time until you’re 70, what do you think you’d need as an hourly wage in order to become a billionaire? Do not try it at a minimum wage. Even at $15 an hour, working a full-time job (2,080 hours a year, which is 40 hours a week times 52 weeks) will take you 32,000 years.
Let me ask you, do you know anyone, really, who is worth $10,000 an hour? What about the most clever boss you ever had? How many 20-year-olds? How many 70-year-olds?
Well, that’s the wage you would have to earn to build up to $1,000,000,000. You would have to get $10,000 an hour, every hour of a full-time job, working from age 20 to age 70. Of course you would have to tighten your belt because for 50 years you would need to live on only $800,000 a year.
How does that relate to the rich people in your neighborhood?
A friend puts it this way. Imagine that there are millionaires in your neighborhood. Then think about the 10 richest people in the United States, the poorest of which has only $50 billion. You would have to have 50,000 millionaires in your neighborhood get to that $50 billion figure.
What can we do?
In November we can take a big step toward a fairer economic system. Proposition 15, the Schools and Communities First initiative, is on the California ballot. It will close corporate tax loopholes created more than 40 years ago, when Prop 13 was passed to keep people in their homes. Schools and Communities First will reclaim $12 billion every year from wealthy corporations and the billionaires behind them.
With that $12 billion every year we can invest in our critical local services, essential workers and schools. We can rebuild — and even move forward! — after this challenging year of crisis after crisis.
But watch out: billionaires and their corporations are paying big money to put fears into people’s hearts and to convince them to back away from this alternative. We need to shield ourselves from big money’s attacks, and here is a key fact:
Proposition 15 does not affect residential property tax at all. It protects homeowners and renters, small businesses, and agriculture.
Please click this LINK. It is well worth reading, and will help you and the people you talk to withstand big money’s advertisements and news stories, and help you see through the analyses of their bought-and-paid-for conventional politicians.
This November, with “Schools and Communities First” Proposition 15, the choice is clear: “coddle” our billionaires or vote YES and support the nation’s children and the rest of us. We do have enough people power to win against the “big money” of billionaires, their corporations, and their followers. Again, I hope you can take a moment to read these well-written FAQs.
Here’s an example of misinformation paid for by Big Money:
ATTACK AD
Notice how this paid internet ad, a year in advance,
spares corporations, and scares homeowners.
Property tax for homeowners and renters is unaffected!
ATTACK AD – do not believe BIG MONEY’S LIES