After his monumental loss in the South Carolina primary Mitt Romney has to be asking himself why he has a hard time connecting to voters. He may want to reconsider how he speaks about money. While refusing to release his tax returns, until a future date to be determined at a future date, he was more than willing to discuss some of his current sources of income. These sources include not only his “golden parachute” from Bain Capital, they also include his speaking fees. According to Romney, these came to “not very much.” According to Bloomberg, his speech income came to $375,000 between February 2010 and February 2011.
It would seem to me that anyone who thinks $375,000 is “not very much” is terribly out of touch with the economic reality 99% of Americans live in. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, $375,000 equals the average earnings of 9.3 average Americans. For me, $375,000 could purchase my 2200 square foot house, with an above ground pool, in bicycling distance of the beach and have enough left over to pay my “highest in the nation” property taxes for over a decade. Here is what else you or I could do with $375,000. We could pay for:
Over 7800 school desks for children in Africa through the K.I.N.D. fund.
1 of 500 hand made 2012 Lexus LFAs
75% of Newt Gingrich’s bill at Tiffany’s.
100 Schlumberger Three Leaves brooch clip in 18k gold at $3750 a pop (if your not feeling generous toward Newt but do not want to leave Tiffany’s).
Outspending Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann combined in Iowa, according to Bloomberg News.
Drug testing 12,500 welfare applicants in Florida.
Enough lethal cocktails to wipe out Texas’ Death Row of it’s 375 residents.
Saving almost 21,000 abandoned and abused animals from lethal injection in a month, according to Sarah Mac Lachlan.
226 slaves in 1860, according to Gongol.com.
Importing 37.5 sex slaves from the Ukraine to the US, as per UNESCO.
Restoring funding to led testing programs in Baltimore, reopening a Revolutionary War era museum in New Jersey, rehire 7 teachers in Michigan or 9 teachers in Missouri, restoring water quality testing in Louisiana (it’s surprising how many government spending cuts come to exactly $375,000).
Stuffing 22,000 Build a Bears (accessories not included) or have the same amount of kids at your son’s birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.
A 1.1 second ad during the Super Bowl.
Start up costs for a small tech company in Massachusetts.
Point is, most Americans could be very productive with $375, 000. Wouldn’t it be fair to ask Mitt how productive he was with his even though it is “not very much”?