You donate more than Trump

According to an article from the New Yorker, back in September of 2016, "the public records indicate that over the past quarter of a century, he (Donald Trump) has given away less than $5 million of his own money.  According to his own estimate, he is worth in excess of $10 billion.  If we take him at his word, that means his charitable contributions come to about 0.05 per cent of his fortune, or five cents for every $100."

Had Donald become more generous since then?  To listen to his press secretary, one would think so.

Trump has recently donated his quarterly Presidential paycheck of $100,000 to charity.  He has so far donated all his Presidential quarterly paychecks to charity.  Yay, Trump.  His press secretary said this was due to his "compassion" and "patriotism".  And certainly $400,000 per year sounds like a lot of compassion and patriotism. 

But, well, how much compassion and patriotism does that work out to?  You know, compared to your average Joe Citizen?

First, we must determine how much $400,000 is to Donald.  Not easy, but doable.  We know that he has claimed to be worth $10,000,000,000. 

As to the "income" off of that we can only guess.  Donald isn't as forthcoming as other Presidents, and won't disclose his taxes.  But we can guess.  The average interest rate on a savings account is six percent.  So that's at least $600,000,000 that Donald is receiving in income per year.

I say "at least" as most businessmen have their money invested in ways that give them a substantially higher rate of return than just the average interest rate.  They sure aren't bringing in less, or they'd just give their assets to the bank and make that six percent!

To then find the percent of giving Donald is doing, we have to take the $400,000 of annual giving and divide that by the $600,000,000 of annual income.  This does not work out to ten percent, like some churches encourage.  It does not work out to 1%.

It works out to .00016, or 16/100ths of 1%.  Less than the previously cited .05, or instead of a nickel per $100, 1.6 pennies per $100.

So how much would Poory McMinimumwage have to give to feel as much of a pinch as Donald does?

A minimum wage worker is going to bring in $15,000 per year - well, before taxes and withholding, but let us go with that.  If we do the math, the man making minimum wage would have to give $2.50 per quarter, for a whopping $10 in a whole year, if he wanted to feel as much pain in giving as Donald does.

Yes, really.  I'm suspecting then that there is an awful lot of "compassion" and "patriotism" among the least of these are brethren.  A minimum wage man flipping a single quarter into the offering plate each week at church would be giving MORE of his time and effort than our President is.

An alcoholic bum, showing up at an AA meeting once per month and putting in the buck for coffee each time, is giving MORE of his time and effort than our President is.
 
Looked at another way, the minimum wage worker would have to work one hour and fifteen minutes to match Donald's generosity.  Same with you.  So take your annual income, divide it by 50 weeks in a working year, and divide that by 40 hours in a working week, and that's your "hourly".  Multiply that by 1.25, and that's how much you have to give to match our President's "compassion" and "patriotism".

And if we assume that no one reading this earns more than $250,000 a year, then so long as you donated at least $156.26 then you've out donated our President.  And I know many, including myself, who while not earning a quarter of a million per year, donate more than $156.26 per month. 

Let's admit it then.

Our President is - as has been said before by many - the stingiest and least giving billionaire in American history.  And if his donations are to measure - as his press secretary said - his "compassion" and "patriotism", well then...

...I'm sure that press secretary is correct.