Here is a major challenge for us: Numbers. More precisely, the scale of things that numbers measure. The challenge grows greater by the month.

That came to mind this week when a drug crook testified in the trial of the drug lord ‘El Chapo’. He claimed ‘El Chapo’ bribed a pair of Mexico’s presidents and others. With about $250 million.

We don’t know if this is true. We do know ‘El Chapo’ could afford it. Because his syndicate makes about $3 billion per year.

Numbers so big are daunting for us. Because the bribes are so huge. How do we keep $35,000 per year prison guards honest when they can make $10 million helping a con escape? (‘El Chapo’ escaped a few times via bribes.) How do you keep a president pure when a small sin can bring home $100 million?

Tell me how you rein-in influence-peddling. When politicians can pull-in hundreds of millions for their, ahem, charitable foundations? Bill and Hillary take a bow.

Drug lords and influence-peddlers deal in such huge numbers because business numbers have grown so huge. The sorts of companies that once made millions per year now make billions. Per month. They once sold to 20 million New Yorkers. Today they sell to three billion Chinese, Indians and Indonesians.

When they need to pay off crooked politicians, fifty million is pocket change for them.

You know some sports stars make a few hundred million per year. As do some CEOs. As do those kids down the block. The ones who used to tinker around with high-tech stuff in their basement.

With sports figures you ask “How can a guy demand $100 million for booting a soccer ball? He can, because 3.5 billion fans follow the sport. And their spending power grows larger each year. The down n’ dirty is that the athletes offer what the 3.5 billion fans want. In the land of the couch potatoes the guy who scores goals is king.

Ask the same question about movie stars. About network news stars. (Anderson Cooper makes $100 million.) The answer is the same. When your product or face or figure or skill or voice appeals to a massive audience you can make the massive bucks.

This phenomenon has not plateaued. Hardly. The audiences grow. Their spending power surges. Indians will spend about $3 billion on movies this year. The Brits will spend about the same. India has nearly 20 times more film-goers than Britain. They have about 1/20th the spending power of Brits. Today.

Indian spending power grows by double digits every year. Imagine the size and power of its movie industry ten years from now. It will probably be $20 billion, maybe $30 billion. Imagine how much more the stars will be able to demand.

Imagine how much more sports stars will demand. In a world down the road. When and where billions of Chinese, Indians, Africans have five times the spending power they have today.

Imagine how much more CEOs of big companies will demand. When profits grow to trillions. The guy or gal who makes the right call will be worth it. As will be the star with the perfect dimple. And the quarterback with the golden arm.

Same subject, different angle: You worry we will never find money enough to pay off America’s debt. The politicians don’t lay awake nights. They look at the stupendous numbers they can play with in this high-tech world.

Global e-commerce is about $25 trillion. Imagine a teeny tax on it. Or the tiniest of taxes on internet communications. Imagine a teensy-weensy tax on carbon emissions. Economists and politicians harbor such dreams.

A few years ago Hungary proposed a small tax on internet traffic. Tiny though it was, it would have hauled in enough money to cover a fat chunk of the country’s annual budget. Demonstrators killed it. But you can see how the politicians were thinking.

Coming to a legislature near you? Numbers so huge are pret-ty alluring.

Also coming to legislatures I suspect: Attacks on the super-rich. And attacks on super-large companies. The numbers so huge make them tempting targets. Especially to those who love to feast on scapegoats.

PS: You can buy my novel THE LAST COLUMNIST at Amazon. You can watch my latest plays at tomasinmorgan.com.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Find Tom on Facebook. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com.