Twitter, The 1%, and Thanksgiving (Not Available in Canada)

“If you could fight any celebrity, who would you fight?”
“I’d fight Gandhi.” – Fight Club

I’m not saying that an evil psychic entity made me send those tweets at 2am.  But I’m sure the wine had nothing to do with it.

Twitter® is living proof that the IQ of any group can be measured by the taking the average group IQ (which should be close to 100, I would hope) and dividing it by the number of participants.  Since there are over 6,000 tweets per second on the system, well, that means the IQ of Twitter® is 0.02, which is slightly above a rock, but still slightly below anyone dating a Kardashian or a common houseplant.  But I repeat myself.  Slap fights between dim kindergartners are often more founded in firm intellectual rigor than a Twitter© argument, and said arguments are generally about as productive as trying to teach a dog to say “milk.”

But I hadn’t figured that out a year ago.  It was back then that I commented on a breathless news story about the evil top 1% in the world.  I pointed out that almost everyone on Twitter® was in the top 1%.

The howls of outrage began.

I admit the whole Handmaid’s Tale obsession on the left cracks me up, you know, because we’re on a course to live in a theocracy.  But if we have to live in a theocracy, can’t it be a sexy one?  Sexy, sexy theocracy.  Mmmm.

Okay, it was mainly just this one guy – I think he was from Great Britain.  He was incensed that I would make such an outrageous statement.  His idea was that the 1% was evil.  It must be taxed, and taxed ferociously for the betterment of the entire planet.  He was filled with a mixture of outrage and envy.  Outrenvy?  Anyway, I then cited statistics that stated that to be in the top 1% in income in the world you need to make only $32,400 per year, or whatever the equivalent was in the fancy wrapping paper that he used for currency instead of sweet, sweet American dollars.

Ahhh, England, using children to do the jobs Americans won’t.

There was a long pause.  $32,000 per year is only $16 per hour.  $16 per hour seemed like not a lot of money to him.  Certainly he didn’t want to be taxed, he wasn’t an evil rich guy.  Other people are evil rich guys.  So, he switched the argument to wealth.  To be in the top 1% in the world in wealth, yes, the bar is a little higher.  Including all sources of wealth, homes, chickens, cars, that toenail clipping collection, and your mom’s secret spaghetti sauce recipe (tomato paste and a little garlic and oregano), to hit the top 1% requires $770,000.  That’s a taller hill than the $16 per hour, but still one that’s achievable for many Americans in their lifetime.  I don’t know about Great Britain, since my conception of their economy involves lots of singing chimney sweeps with bad teeth and I have no idea what chimney sweeping (singing or not) pays.  But let’s be frank, $770,000 isn’t Bond villain-level money, unless James Bond’s villain is living in a partially paid off house in the suburbs and maybe has a decent 401k balance.

Times are tough, even the Bond Villains are on a budget.  Hope they have enough credit limit left for date night and a space-based orbital laser system.  You know how much date night can cost.

So, in the big scheme of things:

• You’re doing okay.
• You’re alive.
• You’re likely in the top 1% in income . . . in the world.
• Besides – you’re more than your money, more than your income, more than your net worth. You’re also your Rolex® collection.
• You’re a handsome devil, and have an intellect way above average.
• You’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

We’ll get back to the big picture soon enough in future posts, but in the time it took you to read this sentence, you have to admit – you were doing okay.

And me?  I’m thankful that I figured out not to get involved in Twitter© slapfights.

So, Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are.  Except Canada.  You can’t even get that right, Canada.  Thanksgiving in October?  Is that when the Moose and Beaver signed a treaty not to invade Nova Scotia or something???