Bringing Astronomical Incomes to Earth

Posted on August 7, 2003 in Class

Yule Heibel found this gem by Stan Cox, an article which draws the analogy between the famous science project illustrating distances within the universe and incomes in the United States:

The median income was about $43,000 last year. Half of American households received less than that amount, and half received more. Suppose the IRS were to locate the median-income plaque at one of Salina’s exits on Interstate 70 and then place plaques symbolizing other incomes along I-70 to the east and west, using a scale of, say, $1,000 of income per mile of road.

On Cox’s scale, half the households in America would live within 43 miles of this plaque. Ninety five percent would reside within 150 miles. But beyond this point, we’re no longer in Kansas. George W. and Laura Bush would get their plaque in Columbus Ohio ($856,000 a year), well outside the circle containing 95% of the incomes:

Meanwhile, the average income of major-corporation CEOs in 2002 was $7.4 million. That’s an amount that falls well beyond Baltimore, where Interstate 70 ends. To keep to scale, the IRS would have to put that plaque in … well … they’d have to put it in Kabul, Afghanistan. At this point, they might have to bring the Defense Department in on the project.

Not to mention NASA. The individuals at the pinnacle of the income pyramid, those with the top 400 incomes (IRS year-2000 figures), averaged $174 million, which, at $1000 per mile, is almost three-fourths of the distance to the moon. Maybe the top members of that group could use some of their loot to fund a plaque – no, a monument – on the moon, reading, “Beyond this point lie the incomes of dozens of Americans.”

Metaphorically speaking, the distance between us earth dwellers and the super rich makes their interests alien to our own. How about bringing them down to earth? Out there, among the stars, the overwhelming majority of American floats like useless asteroids. Now and then, a flake or two breaks off and plummets to us Terrans. These men and women aren’t gods, they are people who have shown little desire to share. With our deepening deficit, it is essential that we reclaim some of that and not allow it to drift out there beyond our reach. Bush’s tax cuts benefit them, not us. They get to keep their money out of circulation. With no exchanges, no transfers, there is no activity. There is a dead economy.

The moon is an apt emblem for this sterility that exists “up there beyond the clouds” of disinformation. It’s a dead planet, lifeless. No rain falls from the moon, so where’s the trickledown? It’s not getting to us.

It’s time that those responsible for stalling our economy be brought to live with the rest of us.