Excursus: Could I make as much money as Bill Clinton if I started shitting out gold bricks?

Upon reading that former President, Bill Clinton had personally made $81,430,000- since leaving the presidency, my son commented that no one was worth that kind of money, “…even if they were shitting out gold bricks!”



Now, that’s quite a statement, so I decided to do the math.


I have no idea of what Mr. Clinton’s fecal production might be (I checked his blog, but it concerns more trivial matters, like politix) so I arbitrarily took my own experience as being fairly typical. I estimate that I produce about a pound and a half of crap with each movement and, as last month’s average was 1.55 movements a day, this give a total of 37.2 ounces avoirdupois (avd) or 33.9 troy ounces, the weight at which gold is quoted. Gold, being at $913.29 per troy ounce, this means that I produce the fecal equivalent of $33,960.53 in gold bricks per day.

Clinton, on the other hand, made $31,870- per diem.

So the answer is yes, Clinton would be worth that much money if he could shit out gold bricks.