The Romney 500

Recently, GOP Republican candidate Mitt Romney released his tax records, revealing to citizens, foremost, that he pays less than half of what they do in taxes. But there is another story here. It begins with Mitt’s apparently necessary explanation of how proud he is, that he “won’t apologize for being successful”, and derides the “divisiveness” of the 99% Occupy movement.

Never before do I recall a Presidential Nominee including with his obligatory tax return an explanation that includes, “Hey I’m rich and there’s nothing wrong with it.” Yes, Mitt, there is nothing wrong with it. American people have for a long time been respectful of members of the Severely Upper Class. But now this raises the question—do we as a nation want to be represented by such? Do we want our Flagship Citizen to be the sort of citizen so out of touch with the daily lives of the average American family? And, for another conversation, do we find it fair that people earning this kind of money, people who enjoy an income that affords surplus discretionary spending roughly 10,000 times greater than the average American Family’s surplus money after paying for necessities (2009 Consumer Expenditures Survey), taxed at half (14%) the majority of taxpayers? This is where the Romney 500 comes into play.

The average American family income was $46,326 in 2009 (US Census Bureau). That is roughly 500 times less than Mitt Romney’s $23 million earned in both 2010 and 2009 respectively. Since consumer prices are not scaled to income, we can still create a comparison table to see the RELATIVE price of a few consumer items were they to be purchased by you, and then what it would cost Mitt Romney if he was earning the same money as the average American Family.