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Where Did The GDP "Growth" Go? Not Into Wages

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

How can the economy grow by roughly one-third in real dollars while real median household income drops like a rock?

Based on gross domestic product (GDP), the U.S. economy has grown smartly since 2000: GDP rose from 10,031 in 2000 to 17,840 in mid-2015. That's an increase of 77.8%.

If we adjust GDP for inflation, we get what's known as real GDP, which increased 31.6%: from 12,360 in 2000 to 16,270 in mid-2015. This works out to a real annual increase of about 1.9% annually.

It would be natural to expect full-time employees' wages and salaries to rise at about this same rate as the economy expanded. But real median weekly earnings (wages and salaries) increased a grand total of $7 in the past 15 years: from $334 per week to $341 per week.

If wages and salaries had risen at the same 1.9% annual rate of real GDP growth, median weekly earnings would be $443, not $341. That's $102 more per week. But weekly median earnings for full-time workers rose only $7 per week, not $102 per week.

In other words, the growth in real GDP hasn't trickled down to wages and salaries.

Real household income--which includes both earned income and unearned income such as dividends and interest--has plummeted 8.5% since 2000. This is a striking contrast with real GDP growth of 31.6%: the economy has expanded 31.6% after adjusting for inflation, while real median household income has declined 8.5%.

If real median household income had grown at the same 1.9% annual rate of GDP, it would now be $75,000 a year, rather than $52,000.

So where did all this growth of the economy end up? How can the economy grow by roughly one-third in real dollars while real median household income drops like a rock and real wages/salaries are essentially unchanged for 15 years?

You can check these projections based on 1.9% annual growth for yourself with a simple Excel spreadsheet.

 

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Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:30 | 6398117 fiftybagger
fiftybagger's picture

So where did all this growth of the economy end up?

 

Lloyd Blankfein Is Now a Billionaire

 

Silver For The People

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:42 | 6398194 Xibalba
Xibalba's picture

the rich are richer and the poor are no longer counted...so what's the problem??

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:22 | 6398385 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

It works just like advanced socialism, where those unable to produce are quietly eliminated or sterilized. No sustainable system can carry but a certain amount of dead weight before it fails, especially when the dead weight is being incentivized and becomes a flesh eating virus. We never know for sure where that tipping point lies because it is dependent upon the culture but also because these governments are so protective of their real data, we would likely never know for sure what the true statistic is.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:36 | 6398454 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor and the rich get rich
Thats how it goes, everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
That their father or their dog just died

Everybody talkin to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose and everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes, everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me, baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Give or take a night or two

Everybody knows that you've been discreet
There were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes and everybody knows

Everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you
Everybody knows that you live forever
When you've done a line or two

Everybody knows that the deal is rotten
Old Black Joes still pickin cotton
For your ribbons and bows, everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes, everybody knows
Everybody knows, yeah, everybody knows
Thats how it goes and everybody knows

Everybody knows that the plague is comin
Everybody knows its movin fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past

And everybody knows that the scene is dead
But theres gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose what everybody knows

Everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach at Malibu

And everybody knows its comin' apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows and everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes, everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes and everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes, everybody knows
Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes, everybody knows

 

Don Henley  (his version of a Leonard Cohen song)

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 22:34 | 6399903 illyia
illyia's picture

What a f*cking awesome piece of writing/music/commentary. And aptly placed.

Bravo! (It was also Leonard Cohen's version...)

 

Where did the missing GDP go, smoke and mirrors A. It was never there. B. The banksters ate it. C. Hyperinflation is just around.. the..

Fri, 08/07/2015 - 02:42 | 6400333 Crush the Infame
Crush the Infame's picture

Great song but no way should Henley's name be in bold at the bottom.  He sang it.  I sang it once in the shower.  Cohen WROTE the damn thing.  It matters. 

Fri, 08/07/2015 - 18:08 | 6402630 illyia
illyia's picture

That is what I meant.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:22 | 6398119 BKbroiler
BKbroiler's picture

Something trickled down but it wasn't wealth

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:15 | 6398358 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

There's a high denmand for moar liquidity.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:25 | 6398120 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

So where did all this growth of the economy end up?

There was no real growth.  Inflation was adjusted lower to create a fake growth

Let's not forget that the Chapwood Index for 2014 was 9.7% and official CPI in the land of the free was only 0.8%.  So the Nominal GDP of 5.6% for 2014 becomes real GDP of -4.1%.

The revised real GDP for years 2011 to 2013 worked out to -6.2%, -6.5%, -6.5% respectively.

What is the Chapwood Index?

"The Chapwood Index reflects the true cost-of-living increase in America. Updated and released twice a year, it reports the unadjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-29/inaccurate-statistics-and-threa...

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:35 | 6398169 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

heresy...Chapwood is a witch...burn 'er!!!

....unless she floats...

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:47 | 6398220 Terminus C
Terminus C's picture

"Build a bridge out of 'er!"

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:33 | 6398444 TxExPat
TxExPat's picture

Actually, the old test was to throw her into a lake or river.  If she drowned, she was innocent and deserving of decent burial.  If she failed to drown THEN she must be a witch, and needed to burned at the stake.  (you had it backword, you were going to burn her unless she floated, the test worked the other way around...). 

Some times I don't actually miss the old Days...

 

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:48 | 6398215 Terminus C
Terminus C's picture

This is the reality of Orwellian Newspeak.  Negative is Positive, down is up, and bad is good.  This is repeated so often that even people who are trying to be critical of the government and its policies end up spouting the government's propaganda (either intentionally as a limited hangout, or unintentionally through confusion).

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:25 | 6398130 ted41776
ted41776's picture

these goons undoubtedly counted unemployment benefits as part of GDP

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:43 | 6398203 oklaboy
oklaboy's picture

and hookers and blow

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:27 | 6398134 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

GDP isn't anything near a representation of our true economy, and the more they 'adjust' it, the worse it gets. The one thing we need is a solid, verifiable number, which is the last thing we're likely to get.....

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:27 | 6398136 Jason T
Jason T's picture

He fouled this one up.  

He's not taking into account population growth .. the weekly earnings is assuming same number of people worked.

Population was 280 million in 2000 and is now 321 million ..

so like 1% of that 1.9% growth is in population growth alone!

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:51 | 6398241 Terminus C
Terminus C's picture

This is an important miss.  But the bigger miss is the reporting of inflation and the lack of calculation on what that inflation is doing to our "growth" (negative or otherwise) in GDP and wages.  Notice that wages are "inflation adjusted" to the government data also.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:12 | 6398342 MissCellany
MissCellany's picture

True...but then, workforce participation has dropped ay back to late-1970s levels too...

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:29 | 6398147 cordial savage
cordial savage's picture

What's the impact on GDP from a strong dollar sally-dogging exports?  I'm assuming it's a pretty big dent.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:57 | 6398279 scraping_by
scraping_by's picture

Exports haven't been much of the GDP ever since Reagan opened up the country to subsidized imports. The profits were used to buy American productivity. That makes it in-company transfers, so it doesn't show up on the balance.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:30 | 6398152 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

Subtract out government from GDP.  Government produces nothing.

Then what do you have?

A dying economy.

Why?  Government is a net drag on the economy.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:33 | 6398163 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

There must be a sponge in the works soaking up all the trickle....ya think??...

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:13 | 6398347 MissCellany
MissCellany's picture

Isn't that why they call us little people *peons*?

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:39 | 6398175 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

It went to the Hamptons and Curpertino, to San Francisco and Washington D.C., it went to boob jobs and Ferrari's and BMW's for little Josephine and Joel on their 16th birthday, to hookers and blow, to McMansions with granite counter-tops and vacation homes, to G6's and illegal help to clean the toilets, cook the food, and pick up the leaves. 

It certainly didn't go to the tax donkeys going to work every day doing something useful and trying to be frugal.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:41 | 6398177 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

1) Wage growth went into bubbles, 2/3rds left out
2) As the general bubble burst (driven by R.E.) some jobs salaries
were also inflated and revised lower.
3) Global wage arbitrage
4) When 2008 crash happened, unemployment was high. Surplus labor (ties into #3) meant that corporations took advantage. Many people were willing to take any job at the time for lower rates of pay and no benefits.

If you were an executive, especially in newer/renewed bubbles in debt financing, healthcare, education or I.T. you made out like a bandit. The Fed's reflation really helped existing wealth asset owners in reflation. Such described are a small portion of the economy that can't carry the rest in consumption/taxation.

Structural underemployment and stagnating wages are here to stay for some years to come. Corporations begin raising wages when paying the lowest wage begins costing customers, revenue, decreased productivity in other words. I see a recognition of this now by companies but not the incentives (yet) for employees. Government subsidies to corporations also delayed this basic cycle.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:12 | 6398301 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

Among the largest Government subsidies to corporations are those that never touch the corporation's books at all, but allow corporations to hold wages low without the consequences that typically come from underpaying workers.  Low-paid workers get tax breaks and subsidies for daycare, the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit, and those who qualify get housing assistance, food stamps, medical coverage (or subsidies taking the form of premium reduction via ObamaCare), etc.  All of these are added together to create the fictitious meme that being on Government Assistance is such a great deal compared to earning a living.  However, the fact is that these are indirect subsidies to low-paying corporations.  Without those subsidies, employers would have to dramatically increase wages to attract any employees at all, much less retaining good ones.  And eventually, if corporations were to try to hold the line on low wages, civil unrest would ensue.

All the propaganda to the contrary, a lot of Americans are earning barely above minimum wage.  $341/week divided by 40 hrs. per week = $8.53/hr.  Subtract out payroll tax, and take-home, before any other taxes or deductions, is about $7.85.  Sure, lots of people earning that are kids.  But my kid just got a dishwashing job, starting pay $10/hr., because they couldn't get anybody for less.  My son can afford to work for that because I pay all his bills.  No adult can afford to work for that.  Hence the need for dramatic increases in welfare.  Eliminate welfare payments and indeed, all hell breaks loose.  Low-wage employers either have to double what they're paying, or trouble ensues promptly.

Yes, I understand that most of these jobs are not providing 40 hours per week of work.  Most are in the 20s now.  So perhaps the nominal hourly wage is $17.06.  If the weekly check is still only $341/wk (before, once again, any withholding), then an adult needs two such jobs, to bring in the princely sum of $34,100 (again, before any withholding).  That person is working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, at two jobs; so perhaps 8 hours a day on the clock plus several hours per day in transit.  It's still wage-slavery, and no way to raise a family or gain any financial security.  But those are the jobs available, and the wages that go with them.  The rest is being skimmed off the top.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:47 | 6398221 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

"Where Did The GDP "Growth" Go? Not Into Wages"

Zion's pockets.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 13:49 | 6398237 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

Short version: The money was burned up by the friction caused by financialization of everything.  Everything now carries fee up on fee, which isn't counted as an actual price increase, but which makes everythiing cost more.  Taxes are indeed part of this, but the carrying costs of enormous piles of debt are added into the cost of everything.

Fri, 08/07/2015 - 09:39 | 6398261 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

You create 3 part time jobs for every full time job and it lowers the median income.  It would also lower the average income.

 

You need to add in benefits - health insurance is the BIG one and look at total compensation.

 

The median job back in 2000 may have paid $334 in wages and had benefits of an additional $50 - total $384

 

Now you have $341 in wages and $102 in benefits - total $443

 

Health insurance alone has more than doubled.  

 

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:00 | 6398295 FreeShitter
FreeShitter's picture

It end up always where it has been for centuries: Into the coffers of the Rothschilds.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:02 | 6398312 hooligan2009
hooligan2009's picture

does household income include federal welfare payments?

 

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:14 | 6398352 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

Government shouldn't be your biggest customer.

That's Fascism.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:18 | 6398370 liquid150
liquid150's picture

Simple explanation, GDP is utterly meaningless and does not in any form whatsoever reflect economic growth. When somebody talks about GDP, they are telling you they do not understand economics.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:22 | 6398384 SHsparx
SHsparx's picture

Inventories for a future that will never come.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:27 | 6398389 kevinearick
kevinearick's picture
Passive-Aggressive Divine Providence:  The Constitutional Shit Show The participants in the imploding global majority simply have no idea where they are in the landscape, because they adopted peer pressure, religious, political and pseudo-scientific, self-serving superstition as children. Statistical data dependency ignores the outliers, assuming they cancel, leaving only the main body, which is only capable of confirming itself, with division by zero, so any segment filter can be applied to confirm itself, as if it exists separately from the whole. Applying MBA etiquette therefore gets you nowhere, more efficiently, as designed.   Capital, labor which no longer wished to work, established Family Law, feudal breeding to maintain the status quo of global natural resource exploitation, and then expanded University agency to justify directing fiat, stolen wealth, to its children, with arbitrary skills increasing at the top, political debate, and real skills, raising a family, systematically eliminated accordingly. What you see as a result is a bloated, ignorant middle class, waiting in a growing line to nowhere, cut off from nature, collecting welfare, simultaneously complaining and feeding the 1%, secretly hoping to become the 1%.   Replicating the university system while maintaining draconian control of ‘jobs’ was a stupid idea, on the part of the US Navy, commandeered and placed in charge of growing trade extortion for the empire. Revolving it around a stupid dc computer, to replace pesky humans and control growing arbitrary real estate inflation, was an incredibly stupid idea. And bringing in no-skill ‘illegal’ immigrants to increase the threat against non-compliance was a monumentally stupid idea.   Thank you John McCain et al, for winding the clock back to eunuch admirals in China, long before Christ. And, if you haven’t noticed, Nero is burning natural resources as fast as he can, to maintain artificial scarcity as demographics collapse toward the global cities. Constantine was no Christian, but he understood demographics. Next to the Internet, modern Christianity is the biggest bait and swap in History, in a very long line of bait and swaps.   What you need is a community with natural resources remaining, of which there are many, a kid that understands currency, which has been explained at length here, and re-allocation of capital away from the nation/state trade extortion racket, which is a matter of timing, distance from the virtual empire spider web. Don’t waste your time trying to fix the wiring in that German airport, or any other global infrastructure make-work nightmare. Keep a light and rip the rest out. Politicians breed in sunk cost, emotional attachment to stupid.   Aggregate living standards, and most segment living standards, have been falling for decades. Which segments of middle class agency do you suppose profited, with relative increases in standards of living, which are still falling standards of living if measured on an absolute scale? Why do you suppose so many republicans are competing in a façade they cannot win? Have you looked at the financials?   The only winning hand is not to play, because the line you will be waiting in goes backwards in time, and the last stepping stone installed is a bridge to nowhere, controlled by the mob, never the path to the future. Trump could join labor at any time, but probability weighs heavily against, so you may not want to hold your breathe.   There is a substantial shortage of labour. What there is no shortage of is middle classes around the world competing to become capital, fighting to define each other as labor, wondering what happened after getting their ticket to ride from politicians, to go over the cliff and be stepped upon by capital, down the path of least resistance. The critters buy stock, which can only go up if they are replaced, and cry foul, go figure. That’s it, get an arbitrary teaching certificate, to misdirect other people’s kids, into medical treatment and jail, and put your ‘money’ in TIAA-CREF, expecting a happy outcome.   Funny, laborers talk about Family Law on a regular basis, but you never hear a word about it in the media, and who do you suppose Trump would need if he really wanted to accomplish something? The bookies don’t have Clinton at 50 and Jeb at 25 by accident.   A woman has three basic choices, like it or not: choose a man she is willing to listen to, learn to do shit herself, or keep 20 guys around in case she happens to need one at any given time. Politicians, including women, take advantage of the latter, effectively creating harems, hence Bill Clinton and Warren Buffet, deluding only themselves.   Family Law, feudalism, is the omnipresent elephant in the room, normalized by agency and conveniently ignored by the middle class, blind mice, until it is subject to martial law itself. Feudalism as expressed by the growth in special interests, balkanization, is the common cancer killing this country, like all others before it, leaving a zombie. The race for presiding president is just a shit show serving as misdirection.   From the perspective of the Saudis, the Americans are the Neanderthals, and “no comedian ever went hungry underestimating the American public.” Trump frightens the professionals breeding the corporate welfare bubble, because he is a bull in a china shop, but so far he has yet to address the pension quagmire, driving the Fed’s choices for inflation measurement, the one issue that must be addressed.   What kind of Mickey Mouse operation (thermal runaway in a dc circuit) are we running here anyway?
Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:23 | 6398392 MEFOBILLS
MEFOBILLS's picture

It's pretty basic, but never part of a discussion because people are stuck in a paradigm.  The credit world paradigm we are in is faulty to its core, and has to be replaced.

Having most of the economy of the world run by cycling money that disappears, makes people run on a treadmill.  That disappearing money also vectors improperly causing dislocations.  This type of money also comes into being improperly against assets that are marked to markets, and markets are not good predictors of price (they are rigged and interact with the very money that is created as credit).

Monetary policy should be floating money that has no accounting periodicity.  This lets it become savings, and lets it be stored to then be loaned out as intermediated money.  In other words, banks should not be making credit, but instead loaning out people's savings.

Individuals can then determine the payback rate.  Creditors can cut their debtors some slack in extenuating cricumstances.  The debt instruments are held by individuals, not banks.  The money becomes wealth based and is held in accounts at banks as if it is valuable.  The bank is paid to store savers wealth money, and the bank earns fees to match up new debtors with new creditors.  Banks are to be forbidden from making credit.  This action removes the banker as a particpant trying to get rich on his own by manipulation, and instead converts him to being a fee based advisor and agent for his customers/ people.  

Fiscal policy is to tax away rents and hence return what the commons created back to the commons.  For example, a single individual who owns the airwaves e.g. Carlos Slim, would be taxed and his gains returned to the public.  Or if a rentier trys to own or monopolize the earths gifts for his own gains, then he is taxed.  Land site value should be taxed.  Labor and the ability to create should be untaxed.  Unearned income should be taxed, as it is theft.

This then allows an economy to be modeled as a pump, where floating money is taxed and then spent at the base of the population.  The base can then consume, and it becomes TRICKLE UP.  The pumping action creates demand and simultaneously redistributes back to the source those rents that were stolen.

This is the only sytem that will work when automation fully takes over.  Financial Capitalism is at its end stages: Put a fork in it, it is done - only many have not realized it yet.  Financial Capital can only distribute wages as prices, and wages will never increase especially as capital looks to find lower and lower wages overseas, or it looks to automate and displace.  Capital then buys up the earth and monopolizes what was once free.  Greece is a perfect example of the action, and growing Oligarchy is a symptom of the disease.

It is a simple matter to convert the world's credit system to wealth based sovereign money.  It can be done overnight.

But, instead - we'll probably destroy ourselves in war rather than let go of the fraudulent money system.   

We are willfully stupid; in fact we are not even trying alternate money systems and observing their functions.

The plain fact of the matter is that sovereign money systems have already been run in the past, and they worked well.  Again, it is willful ignorance, or perhaps is it malicious - to ignore these facts, and not have them as part of the debate.

3000 years of coin history also cannot be ignored; yet it barely gets mention in economic textbooks.  

 

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:27 | 6398416 liquid150
liquid150's picture

But we need MOAR CREDIT!!!

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 14:31 | 6398436 Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica's picture

Thanks.

Would you be able to comment on the COMER case before the Canadian courts?

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 15:27 | 6398647 MEFOBILLS
MEFOBILLS's picture

The COMER case is important.  From 38 to 74, BOC was a crown bank, where its stock was held by MOF.  

Canda was a mixed system, where most of the money supply was debt fee issued by BOC.  Trusts loaned out intermediated money at 1 to 2 percent for those who wanted to buy a home, therefore the interest money cycled back to savers rather than vectoring to bankers.

Canada was a sovereign system from 38 to 74, or rather sovereign like, and the historical data is impressive.  Economic surplus that was created funded education, including college, and also medical.  Yet there was little to no price inflation, little to no private debts, efficient industry.  The economy had a large component of gifting as well, as it wasn't fully monetized.

In the U.S. during the Greenback era, upwards of 40% of the money supply was greenbacks, so that is another reasonably recent period in history.   Greenbacks were so popular there was a greenbacker political movement to keep them; but of course, private credit issuing bankers ended up winning. 

To American's:  Greenback laws are still on the books.  Treasury CAN spend greenbacks again if they chose too.  That it doesn't happen shows how far gone the country is.  

BOC Crown bank being usurped by BIS rules in 74 was a crime, and it should be overturned. Canadians should be advised to put layers of law, or consitutional law around BOC if it is released, that way it cannot be usurped again in future.

 

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 15:35 | 6398683 Lady Jessica
Lady Jessica's picture

Very grateful for your thoughts.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 15:05 | 6398572 Forbes
Forbes's picture

It's called non-wage compensation, i.e. benefits--healthcare benefits/spending. Duh.

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 15:26 | 6398645 starman
starman's picture

I once told my "receptionist" about spread sheets and she spred it on the sheet!? 

 

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 15:48 | 6398726 fowlerja
fowlerja's picture

Not sure where it went... but we sure borrowed alot of money to make up for less wages

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 16:29 | 6398874 RichardParker
RichardParker's picture

Growth?  You're kidding, right?  Take a look at the debt to gdp ratio post 2000.

http://www.macrotrends.net/1381/debt-to-gdp-ratio-historical-chart

Thu, 08/06/2015 - 16:40 | 6398908 GreatUncle
GreatUncle's picture

Buy a peanut for $1 or $10?

$9 growth on the higher value but you are not consuming more and you are saving less. Economy moves to needs like food and housing and all the non-essentials start falling in value just to shift it.

Bought a quadcopter, awesome $1 but it cost $6 to ship ... way to go.

Fri, 08/07/2015 - 06:25 | 6400461 katagorikal
katagorikal's picture

Two words missing from the analysis: per capita


Population has grown almost 15% since 2000, so real GDP per capita has only grown about 15%, which is easily within the grasp of the 1% skimming off the top, plus the errors and distortions of the published inflation rate.

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