Much has come to light over the past week about Willard's position on hard-working American families but none more telling than his belief that emergency room availability is a form of health care.
Willard grew up in a wealthy family, attended Ivy League schools and landed on his feet in a hedge-fund, financial services company where he made tens of millions of dollars. That's fine but its not the mark of a self-made man who built a business, pulling himself up by the bootstraps.
His 2011 tax returns have been released which show he earned $13,700,000.
He apparently donated $2.2M to charity and paid almost $2M in taxes.
First things first:
As a Mormon he is required, and we understand he is allegedly devout, to donate 10% to the LDS Church.
Assuming the best, $1,370,000 of his charity went to the church, leaving $830,000 to others. So 37% of his donations went to the church.
What's my issue with this? It's a blessing that we live in a country where we are free to choose where we want to donate our money. Be it a church, a cancer center, an AIDS clinic - no problem.
However, in my opinion, doing so limits the worth of the donations. The money is spread to various privately managed charity organizations which at times have profits, or operating expenses, sometimes including high salaries for executive directors, built into their budgets, diminishing the impact the money's donated can have on the needy. Furthermore, the fact that discretion, or discrimination, can and does occur is very troubling to me.
Now, as for Willard's "net" income:
Absent mathematical auditing, the numbers above suggest Willard would've been left with $9,500,000
Breaking that number down in the very simplest terms, Willard earned $26,000, per day, every day, without lifting a finger.
That's more than half the median salary of working Americans ($51,000) who work at least 40 hours per week for 50 weeks, just to survive.
In fact, Willard's DAILY income is equal to the ANNUAL income of almost 7 million American households. HOUSEHOLDS! http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032012/hhinc/hinc01_001.xls
I don't begrudge Willard his success or his wealth, outside of my concerns for everything he did to game the system, shutter manufacturing plants and outsource jobs overseas but I certainly do not think he could or would understand my circumstances nor care about where I am as a hard-working American
Willard grew up in a wealthy family, attended Ivy League schools and landed on his feet in a hedge-fund, financial services company where he made tens of millions of dollars. That's fine but its not the mark of a self-made man who built a business, pulling himself up by the bootstraps.
His 2011 tax returns have been released which show he earned $13,700,000.
He apparently donated $2.2M to charity and paid almost $2M in taxes.
First things first:
As a Mormon he is required, and we understand he is allegedly devout, to donate 10% to the LDS Church.
Assuming the best, $1,370,000 of his charity went to the church, leaving $830,000 to others. So 37% of his donations went to the church.
What's my issue with this? It's a blessing that we live in a country where we are free to choose where we want to donate our money. Be it a church, a cancer center, an AIDS clinic - no problem.
However, in my opinion, doing so limits the worth of the donations. The money is spread to various privately managed charity organizations which at times have profits, or operating expenses, sometimes including high salaries for executive directors, built into their budgets, diminishing the impact the money's donated can have on the needy. Furthermore, the fact that discretion, or discrimination, can and does occur is very troubling to me.
Now, as for Willard's "net" income:
Absent mathematical auditing, the numbers above suggest Willard would've been left with $9,500,000
Breaking that number down in the very simplest terms, Willard earned $26,000, per day, every day, without lifting a finger.
That's more than half the median salary of working Americans ($51,000) who work at least 40 hours per week for 50 weeks, just to survive.
In fact, Willard's DAILY income is equal to the ANNUAL income of almost 7 million American households. HOUSEHOLDS! http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032012/hhinc/hinc01_001.xls
I don't begrudge Willard his success or his wealth, outside of my concerns for everything he did to game the system, shutter manufacturing plants and outsource jobs overseas but I certainly do not think he could or would understand my circumstances nor care about where I am as a hard-working American