In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto made the famous observation that 20 percent of Italy’s population owned 80 percent of its land. I have my own version of this rule, updated to reflect current world events: 20 percent of the world owns 80 percent of the stupidity. To wit:

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Nineteen percent of Mexicans back presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s decision to declare himself president and set up a 12-member shadow government after losing the election by a 1 percent margin, according to the Boston Globe. Imagine the pandemonium that would have ensued had Al Gore or John Kerry gone the same route here.

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The National Center for Science Education believes that as many as 20 percent of US schools are teaching creationism in some form, according to The Guardian

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About 20 percent of Americans have read one of the 12 Left Behind novels or megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, according to a survey written about in Christianity Today.

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Sunni Arabs, the sect mostly responsible for the Iraq insurgency, make up 20 percent of the Iraqi population, according to the Washington Institute.

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My proposal is to give the 20 percenters their own little corner of the world and to let them fight over 20 pecent of the rations that would be necessary to sustain their collective existence.