Did you notice this news item a few weeks ago? The ICIJ obtained and released records of off-shore, secret, bank accounts of 250,000 organizations and individuals. That there are substantial sums in such banks is known by anyone who has read spy novels. But the real surprise is the amount of money represented: at least 21 trillion dollars.
Numbers like $21 trillion are very hard to grasp without something to compare them to. In this case, a good comparison is to the public debt of the United States. For everyone knows that the U.S. is in hock for an unconscionable sum that will be impossible to pay off in anyone's lifetime. What is the size of the U.S. debt? As of April 2013, it is $11.9 trillion.
The staggering truth behind these numbers is that a relatively small number of people and organizations are so wealthy as to have (formerly) hidden money representing about twice the total public debt of the United States.
It is fashionable to present the public debt on a per-capita basis, $38,000 each. This number is meant to frighten, but it is clearly deceptive. For a relatively small number of people have more than enough hidden assets to repay that debt in full. Any kind of progressive weighting of the debt will substantially lower the debt figure for the average person.
The final conclusions? 1) Our national debt, while serious, is a solvable problem. 2) We have an insanely inequitable distribution of wealth.
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