Unhappily, I lost my house last year, opted for deed in lieu of foreclosure at the advise of my lawyers and my accountant though they both told me I would pay a tax penalty because my loss is considered a capital gain by the IRS.
The bank received my deed and full payment of the balance of my mortgage because I had paid PMI (personal mortgage insurance) as required by my state. In effect, I paid to insure the bank against the possibility that I might default on my payments; they get paid. Why they aren't responsible for their own insurance -- well, think about it....
So, I'm feeling very nervous and vulnerable since I'm guessing that I can't pay the capital gains. I'm also feeling very angry and hateful toward the banks and impotent to do anything about it. Thinking about how the owners, stockholders, executives of financials institutions have most of the rest of us by the balls, so to speak, I decided to do a little calculating of revenge. Here's my thinking:
Total U.S. wealth, as of 2009, was 55,000 billion dollars. Think about that.
$55,000,000,000,000,000 -- I think
The top 1% owns about 34.5% of that wealth, or -- $18,700,000,000,000 -- $18,700 billion
The population of the U.S., as of 2010 was about 318,000,000. 315,000,000 less the top 1%.
What would it be like if, in the interest of moving the economy and narrowing the gap between the top 1% and the rest of the population, we executed a wealth redistribution program. We certainly wouldn't take the entirety of the 1%'s wealth away from them. That would hardly be decent. What if we took just 10% of their wealth away from them and redistributed it equally among the rest of the population. What would that look like?
10% of 18,700,000,000,000 is 1,870,000,000,000. A pittance.
Distribute that among the 315,000,000, the rest of the population, minus the 1% and each person would get, roughly, $5,937. A down payment of a new car; a vacation, whatever.
Just another indication of how enormous the gap is between the top 1% and the rest of us.
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