How many Billionaires can dance on a Pinnacle?

(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

The GOP often dangles this dream, before its far too loyal followers:

You too, could one day be a Millionaire, or perhaps even a Billionaire, so don’t ruin it for everyone, by raising Taxes on the Wealthy. Afterall, someday it could be you.  In their America, anything’s possible.

Most everyone, wants to be rich someday.  It’s part of the American Dream — or at least it used to be.  But the way things have been going lately it seems the Dream has been downsized to:

I just hope I can find/keep my Job.

Despite the somber work-a-day reality most people face, far too many still take the Republican dream, at face value.  By following their lead, they hope to strike it rich someday, too.

Perhaps we Dems, should address this rouse, and dare to ask:

What would really happen if we ALL struck it rich?

Because obviously there is only SO much room “at the top” …

The world is only SO Big.  It’s resources, have been mostly claimed and tapped.

And despite the rhetoric, Opportunities are NOT created the same, for all people.

A few people are just born into places of high privilege — while the vast majority of us are not.

In the rarefied air of Billionaire power brokers, there are very few “job openings” for the eager, go-getters among us.  Most of the good Millionaire jobs have already been taken, too.

Being a Billionaire is hardly a “growth industry” — although it is a Money Monopolizing one.

Where on Earth are the World’s Billionaires?

You’ll find an astounding collection of 329 billionaires throughout the United States.

[…]

There are hundreds here with a total of more than 800 scattered globally.  [as of 2009 Forbes Magazine ratings].

Only 800 Billionaires around the world, that’s hardly a ground swell.

Forbes list of Billionaires

There are 1,011 names in this year’s list. [Forbes ranking of the world’s richest billionaires as of February 12, 2010]

Hey the Billionaires, grew in number, from 2009 to 2010 — they went from 800 very wealthy souls, to 1,011 of them —

Maybe there is “room” at the top afterall?  

Well perhaps there’s opportunity to break into the Millionaire’s Club — I hear Millionaires are a “dime a dozen”, these days.

Where the World’s Millionaires Live: The Top 10 Countries

By Nikhil Hutheesing, dailyfinance.com —  June 11, 2010

Millionaires Hold 38% of Global Wealth

Boston Consulting Group’s report includes a revealing list countries with the highest percentage of millionaire households, but before getting to that, here are some interesting tidbits:

The number of millionaire households in the world represents less than 1% of all households.

Even so, these most fortunate ones owned about 38% of the world’s wealth in 2009, up from 36% in 2008.

[…]

7th) United States

Population:  310.2 million

Percentage of Millionaire Households:  4.1%

That’s a lot of Millionaires  (12,700,000 of them in the USA).  No wonder the GOP has enough deep pocket backers, to keep them in clover … and in all those slick and deceptive TV ads.

Maybe you too could join the club, if you work hard, and play by their rules.  Just Buckle down, and go for broke …

One VERY Small problem though — The World can only support SO many extravagant lifestyles.  There is this little idea of “carrying capacity” that will ultimately put the brakes on those richy rich GOP dreams …

How many people can the Earth support?

Tim Radford, The Guardian — Nov 11, 2004

It’s an old question. Two hundred years ago, Thomas Malthus said population would race ahead of food supply, but he wasn’t the first. The early Christian writer Tertullian said (around AD 200, in De Anima):

“We are burdensome to the world, the resources are scarcely adequate for us… Truly, pestilence and hunger and war and flood must be considered as a remedy for nations, like a pruning of the human race becoming excessive in numbers.”

That was when the population of the whole planet was maybe 100 million or so.

[…]

But it takes 900 tonnes of water to grow a tonne of wheat, and there is only so much water, so much land and so much sunshine.

Human action has its own “ecological footprint”; there has to be so much land to provide food, clothing, shelter, medicines, building material, fresh air and clean water for any one human. It takes, according to some calculations, 2.1 hectares of land and water to provide for one average human. The important word is: average. The American footprint is about 10 hectares.

So if all humans lived at US standards, we’d need another four Earths.

If all the world lived just like Americans, let alone like Millionaires and Billionaires, we’d need 4 Planet Earths to provide the resources, to maintain the American Lifestyle for everyone.

10 Hectares per Average American, that IS quite the Footprint.

[1 Hectare = 2.47 Acres — so our American Footprint is about 25 Acres, to keep each of us us ticking.]  

Say the Median Income for that “average American” is $50,000 —

Multiple that by 20 to get to a Million.

The means the Millionaire Footprint is 200 Hectares  (10 x 20)

[or about 500 Acres needed per Millionaire.]

Multiple a Million by a thousand to become a Billionaire —

that means the Billionaire’s Ecological Footprint is a whopping 200,000 Hectares!

[or about 500,000 Acres needed per Billionaire.]

Good thing, I guess, there is only around a 1000 Billionaires on the planet —

otherwise we’d need a MUCH bigger Planet to keep them in the Tax Free Lifestyle they are accustomed to.  

SO How many Billionaires can dance on a Pinnacle?

How many Hectares (acres) are on the Planet?  (Hint: not enough)

Perhaps the GOP’s dreams of Fool’s-gold that they have been pedaling to the masses, is NOT quite as plausible — or as practical — as they would have us believe.

Despite their rhetoric, Planet Earth does have its Limits … whether the Republican’s capacity to lie and to deny Science, does or not.

You’d think as “good stewards” of the Planet, Conservatives would care about their Ecological Footprints wouldn’t you — instead of the just the number of zeroes in their Bank Accounts …

Of course that mad dash for power, involves a serious compromise or two now doesn’t it.

It’s not called rarefied air, for nothing.