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John Stumpf, CEO Wells Fargo

I just spotted the latest bank executive pay report in the Los Angeles Times and it appears that the wealth has distilled further:  from “the 1%” to “the .5%”.  Of the 6 bank CEO’s reviewed, only 3 got a pay increase.  Further, the top 2 earned almost twice as much as each of the other 4.  John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, was the top “earner” with a $22.87 million take – up 15% from last year.  Let’s look at some simple math on this – I know I have to, because if I could remember my calculus, this guy would be out of a job and he’d be blogging about me.  Anyhoo, he got the 22.87 million bucks in one year.  The U.S. population is 315 million.  The current unemployment rate is 7.7%.  If the ENTIRETY of our population qualified at that unemployment rate, there would be 24.3 million people out of work. And if this one guy lost his job, and his 2012 income alone was divided among the entire unemployed population,

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Lloyd Blankfein, CEO Goldman Sachs

we would have that many (24.3 million) more almost-millionaires.

This really lends a sense of proportion to one man’s staggering wealth.  And I’m not attempting to rally the socialists here, but if we could topple just this one guy’s position and distribute his one-year’s income, we would ameliorate this nation’s unemployment, the banks would have fewer people to lend to, and Lloyd Blankfein wouldn’t have to be the “number-two” anymore (CEO of Goldman Sachs:  $21 million income after a 75% pay raise in 2012) and get back to “doing God’s work.”