Mitt Romney: born, 1947. Shortly after Romney is born, his dad becomes managing director of the Automobile Manufacturer's Association. Romney's family (via his dad) is also "LDS [Mormon] royalty". Reminder: at this time, the LDS teaches that, as Apostle Mark E. Peterson told BYU students in 1954:
"If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant"African Americans are not permitted to serve in the LDS priesthood or given other important LDS shiny things.
Barack Obama: born, 1961. Oops, LDS-wise, he is Negro. Oops, US-wise, it's 1961, also not so great for a kid who is 1/2 African. As a kid, his dad was...not in the picture after he was a year old or so.
Mitt Romney: Childhood. He has a privileged childhood. His dad is first an auto executive, then Governor of Michigan, then presidential candidate (possibly fulfilling the Mormon "white horse"prophecy), then HUD secretary for Nixon. Young Mitt, the youngest son, goes to an exclusive prep school and his father invests his "birthday money," only "a few thousand dollars," according to Ann Romney, in American Motors stock at $6/share. As a side note, $3,000 in 1956 is equivalent to $23,791 in 2010.
Barack Obama: Childhood. Not so much on the privileged childhood. His mom is poor in Obama's early years, studying for her PhD, and sometimes relying of government assistance. His mom remarries when Obama is 5, and Obama spends the next five years in Indonesia with his mom and her new husband. At age 10, Obama comes alone to Hawaii to go to school while living with his maternal grandmother and grandfather. He goes to an exclusive school.
Mitt Romney: The Draft/College/Graduate School. Romney misses the Draft due to missionary work in France for 30 months combined with a high draft number. He comes back from France to marry Ann Romney (who has converted to the LDS church) and attend BYU. Ann and Mitt Romney pay their living expenses in this period by selling the birthday stock, purchased for $6/share, for $96/share. Assuming that "a few thousand" = $3000, and that at $6/share this purchased 500 shares, which sold for $96/share, this would have been $48,000 in 1969. This is $282,185 2010 dollars. Ann is a homemaker, having the first of her five sons (oy, vey, I bet she would have paid $5,000 1969 dollars for a girl!) in 1970. After BYU, Mitt attends a four-year Harvard Law/Business school program, and he graduates in 1975. Because housing in Boston is "expensive" at $400 and only "dumps" are available, Mitt Romney takes out a loan for $42,000 from his father to buy a house while he is in graduate school. In 2010 dollars, that is $223,543.
Barack Obama: The Draft/College/Graduate School. Conscription ended in 1973, when Obama is too young to be eligible. Obama goes first to Occidental College and later transfers to Columbia University in 1981. He graduates from Columbia in 1983. He works for a possible CIA front (!) Business International Corporation, for a public interest group for the first couple of years after graduation, and then for a church-based community organization for the following three years. He goes back to college for his law degree from 1988 through 1991. He pays for college like normal people, with a combination of family contributions from his grandparents, from scholarships, and from student loans. Michelle Obama says in 2009 that both have only recently finished paying off their loans.
Mitt Romney: After Graduate School. Joins an investment company in 1975, Bain & Company in 1977. Almost immediately begins making money that probably would not have been too damaging to the world if it had been taxed at slightly higher rates. Is tapped to head Bain Capital in 1983. When Ann Romney is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998, she is treated with not only conventional Western medical means, but also with:
reflexologyOh, and "dressage," which she calls "joy therapy" and involves riding $250,000 horses in horse posture competitions. It's a good bet these aren't covered by insurance. In 2010, Mitt Romney and Ann Romney showed income of $27 million dollars. They have four housekeepers, whom they do not pay well. Maybe if tax rates were just a tad lower, could take some of the tax savings and create a couple of jobs. The Romney's have a net worth of probably about 190 - 250 million dollars. This probably does not include amounts in trust for the Romney children, which are likely to be in irrevocable trusts. Romneys' 2010 returns showed income of 1.5 million from a trust, which, if it's a grantor trust earning 5% (which would be a pretty good return right now) indicates that they've got at least 30,000,000 socked away in irrevocable grantor trusts. If they're making only 1%, that's $150,000,000 socked away for the kids/grandkids.
acupressure
acupuncture
yoga
deep-breathing exercises
cranial-sacral therapy
Barack Obama: After Graduate School he works first as an attorney, where he meets his wife Michelle, and later as a professor at the University of Chicago. Both spouses work after their children are born, making probably about $200,000 per year through 2000, when Barack Obama becomes a state senator and the couples' pre-presidential income begins to increase to a maximum of about $1.6 million in 2005, mostly from Obama's book. The Obamas have a net worth of probably about 10.5 million dollars.