Trillionaire maths and vibe politics

Doom-scrolling the social media platform formerly known as Twitter last night, I came across a post from the Green Party that, on the face of it, looked amazing.

It was amazing… but for different reasons than it is assumed were intended.

The post (above) claimed that Tesla had approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk – “20 billion times more than a nurse in the UK earns.”

Now, I’m all for a discussion on wealth and tax. But if we’re going to have them, we should at least make sure the sums add up.

Particularly, if the one posting the “facts” are trying to convince people they are a credible option for power.

A quick check of the arithmetic: A UK nurse on around £35,000 ($44,000) would earn roughly 22 million times less than $1 trillion…

So, a pretty big number…. But nowhere near as big as 20 billion….

Even if we use a US nurse’s average salary ($94,000), it’s still “only” about 10.6 million times less.

For their “20 billion times” to be true, a nurse would have to earn: $1,000,000,000,000 ÷ 20,000,000,000 = $50 (total!)… which is obviously absurd.

The real numbers are still eye-watering, of course… and in this age of “vibe politics”, what’s a few misplaced zeros between echo-chamber friends?

However, I would say that if we want to have a serious conversation about wealth / tax fairness these types of post are not helpful.

[dismount soapbox]

For some out of date musings on the 2024 Green Party manifesto, please see here.