Quote of the day - billionaires

From Canadians for Tax Fairness:

"The term “billions of dollars” is now thrown around with such frequency that many people simply have no feel for what it means. In their book, The Trouble With Billionaires, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks put it in perspective: “Imagine this: you are given one dollar every second. At that rate, after one minute, you would have sixty dollars. And after twelve days, you would be a millionaire – something beyond most people’s wildest dreams. But how long would it take to become a billionaire? Well, at that rate, it would take almost thirty-two years."

Phew. And they add that while the average income for the top 10 US athletes was $44.6 million, and for pop stars it was $87.2 million - the average income for the top 10 hedge fund managers was $1.7 billion.

"A billion dollars is an astronomical amount of money. And those with billions, hundreds of millions, tens of millions or even a few million can certainly afford to contribute more taxes to build and maintain a healthy 21st century society."