The Throne Room

I woke up this morning and decided to do a little math.

I watched 60 Minutes last Sunday, and they did a segment on the "Billionaire's Club," where members pledge to donate at least half of their enormous wealth to charity. This philanthropic work is headed by Warren Buffett, and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Even if we ignore the fact that Bill Gates has an estimated net worth of $40 billion dollars, and that even giving away half, still leaves him with a cool $20 bil in pocket money, that is noblesse oblige at its finest. (In all fairness, Gates is donating more than 50% of his fortune, as is Buffett.)

But exactly how rich are these people? There are lots of comparisons between the one-percenters, and the rest of us, but I wanted to put it in terms that hit a little closer to home. At least for me.

So just for sh*ts and giggles, I looked up how much Warren Buffett makes per year. Buffett's 2015 net income was $12.7 billion. I divided that by 365 to come up with the amount Buffett earns per day which came out to  approximately $35,000,000. I divided that by 1440, the number of minutes in a day, to come up with the figure of $24,305 for how much he earns per minute.

I then looked up the average amount of time a person in the U.S. spends on the toilet per bowel movement. According to the National Association of Plumbing Fixtures Manufacturers, the answer is 10 to 20 minutes.

So I averaged that to 15 minutes and multiplied that by $24,305 to arrive at $364,575, assuming Buffett is average in his daily habits.

I next learned that the U.S. median income at the last census was just under $49,000 per year.

So, in other words, Warren Buffett makes more money taking a dump than the average wage earner makes in 7 and a half years.

Enjoy work today. (smile emoticon)