"Riches Beyond the Dreams of Avarice"

dba Mathematics

For months, there has been much said about the Romney campaign’s creative mathematics regarding its tax plan. The veracity of it was questioned by other Republicans during the Republican primary debates, but the subject of its creative inaccuracy was brought to the forefront by President Clinton, in his terrific speech at the Democratic National Convention last month that become known as…”It’s Arithmetic.”

The recent headlines made by Republican leaning CEO’s threatening the jobs of their employees if President Obama is reelected have made me think about the arithmetic involved in their less than veiled threats. What

these CEO’s all have in common besides their hatred for the President is that they are billionaires. But: What is a billionaire? It’s a term that we unreflectively think of as people having “riches beyond the dreams of avarice.” This expression is a well-known line in Star Trek IV from Dr. McCoy but it is actually attributed to the 18^th Century poet and essayist Samuel Johnson.

It is a wonderful quote; poetic in its flow: But what does it mean to say a person has “riches beyond the dreams of avarice.” Well, avarice according to Webster means an “insatiable desire for wealth or greed,” it means a desire for riches beyond the dreams for greed (italics are mine).

So these billionaires threatening their employees, poetically, do so because they have an insatiable desire for wealth beyond their dreams for greed. But, again what does this mean mathematically?

Again, according to our friend Webster, a billion is equivalent to 1,000 million; that is, a billion dollars is a million dollars 1,000 times over and some of these guys on my list below have 20 or more billions. In fact, according to Forbes* the following individuals are worth approximately: 

 *Charles Koch                 $31 Billion    or        31,000 Millions                    

*David Koch                   $31 Billion     or       31,000 Millions

*Sheldon Adelson            $20 Billion    or        21,000 Millions                    

  David Siegel**                 $1 Billion    or          1,000 Millions

Arthur Allen**                   $1 Billion    or           1,000 Millions

Robert E Murray**            $1 Billion    or          1,000 Millions

** Siegel, Allen, and Murray have been referred to in the headlines recently as billionaires, though I have been unable to confirm their personal net worth; I assumed $1 Billion.

Now, I do not believe that it is hyperbole to suggest that having the sums of money these people have been reported to be worth, is to claim they are “rich beyond the dreams of avarice,” but let’s do some math. President Obama wishes to raise the tax on all individuals earning over $250,000/year by 3%. Now, I have no knowledge of their yearly earnings. But, I think it is fair to assume that given their personal net worth, their yearly earnings by itself would make most anyone “rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” And, I think it is also fair to say that a 3% tax increase in their yearly personal earnings would have no effect on their wealth or standing.

Yet they threaten to fire employees because of what they claim will be the ‘effect’ of the reelection of the President on them and/or their companies. I would suggest it is not the effect but the 'affect'...the need to feed the greed. In fact, between the 6 of them, they could make 85,000 people millionaires and still remain 'rich beyond the dreams of avarice'.

As I just suggested, these billionaires have made headlines recently by publicly threatening that the reelection of President Obama could cause significant layoffs at their companies with the exception of Sheldon Adelson, who is just trying to buy the election for Romney. Adelson has been the largest donor to the Republican cause and I guess cannot threaten his employees because most are overseas. 

If I might add, the Walton Family, with a combined net worth according to Forbes in excess of $100 Billion or 100,000 Millions, refuse to pay a living wage to many of their employees and minimal, if any, benefits.

A former professor of mine, a secular Conservative for whom I have great respect, once said to me "that it is a silly way of living to aim at amassing vastly more money than one would possibly need but a lot of people live silly lives." I cannot fathom the need to dream about being greedy beyond the realm of greed and it is surely, silly, even so, I somehow do not believe the election of President Obama for a second term will have any affect on their sleeping patterns. If Romney, however, is elected it will surely both effect and affect ours.