Born on third base
A lot has been written about the top 1 percent of earners in the United States. To make this exclusive club, you must earn at least $327,000 a year. But what about worldwide?
To make the top 1 percent, it only takes $47,500, according to globalrichlist.com, which has a calculator where you can plug in your income to see how you rate.
Interestingly, $47,500 is almost identical to the median household income in the United States.
That means half of U.S. households bring home more money than 99 percent of households worldwide.
The poverty level for a family of four in the United States is $20,000. That amount puts you in the top 11.16 percent of the 6 billion people worldwide. Three-quarters of the world’s population makes less than $1,500 a year. That’s 4 bucks a day.
On the flip side, households subject to the much-debated federal estate tax – at least $4 million per couple – are among the 0.001 percent richest in the world.
These numbers are something to think about when pondering that new Nintendo Wii video game system for $240 (hi, son!) or a high definition TV for the holidays. The Web site notes that the $2,400 for such a TV set could also cover the costs of educating all the children of an Angolan village.
They say goodbye; we say hello. Who is winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis? Well, relatively speaking, it’s USA all the way.
In a Sept. 27 report by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, 94 percent of Iraqis reject al-Qaida. Meanwhile, only 70 percent of Iraqis want U.S. troops to leave within a year. So, we have that going for us.
Then again, the survey was taken before October, which was the deadliest month for Iraqi civilians since the March 2003 invasion.
“We interrupt this ad for a brief news item.” Election Day signals the end of campaign ads taking over the airwaves. That, of course, is cause for celebration, but maybe those ads wouldn’t seem so oppressive if they were better balanced by campaign coverage by TV news stations.
A study conducted by the Midwest News Index at the University of Wisconsin found that in the month leading up the midterm elections, TV news programs in seven Midwest markets aired about 4 minutes of campaign ads for every minute of election-related news.
It wouldn’t be surprising to find that a similar ratio occurred in this region. Embarrassing, but not surprising.
Soft on turkeys. Every year since 1947, the president of the United States has pardoned a turkey. Every year the media has covered it.
Isn’t it time the ax fell on this tradition?