Profile

Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
09 April 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
An Informed Atheist Re-Addresses Christianity
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
A Progressive Reform Program for America
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Supply Side and Libertarians Are Wrong and Not Supported by the Data
10 March 2018 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
How Income Inequality Injures People and the Economy
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
A Democratic Reform Program for America
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Supply Side Libertarians Are Wrong and Not Supported by the Data
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Economic Ignorance
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part VI)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part V)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part IV)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part III)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part II)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Rise of Income Inequality (Part I)
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Racial Hatred Is Confused
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
What To Do About North Korea
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
On Neoliberalism
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Ban Hate Marches and Assemblies
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
On Miss Piggy and Mr. Pork
22 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
The Demise of the Democratic Party
09 August 2017 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
On Elitism

My Economic Forecast Clarified

20 January 2016 | Pago Pago, American Samoa
Kimball Corson
It is: Continuing and persistent (worldwide) recession for the middle and lower class, with a recession for top 20 % later but not a total collapse.

We should be looking at GDP change for the 60% band around median income in each country (30 % on each side), not total GDP as income because the top 5% of U.S. households accounted for 22.3% of GDP as income, and the top 20% of households had 51.0% of all GDP as of 2015. We should look at how the 4/5th of Americans are doing not the top 5th or everyone together. That hides the real story. We get it all wrong, all the time and proceed cluelessly.

Part of the problem is the lack of data and part is growing inequality gets conflated with the continuing impact of the Great Recession. Americans cannot mentally separate the two that well. Almost half of the working age population doesn't have a job. They have been flushed out of the system, a big percentage earlier in the late 1990's and early 2000's and then another large percentage after the 2007 crash.

From about 1942 to from about 1973 to 1977, the share of GDP going to the top 10% of households, whether it included capital gains or not, was pretty constant at about 34% (with capital gains) or 32% (without such gains).

After then, in the mid 1980's, the share of GDP going to the top 10% rose to 35%, to 40% by 1992, to about 43% in 2002, to 46% (without gains) and 50% (with gains) in 2008, and to 47.5% (w/o gains) and 50.3% (w/ gains) in 2012.

What this means is the share of GDP going to the bottom 90% of Americans declined as follows --

66% from 1942 to about 1975,
to 65% in the mid-1980's,
to 60% by 1992,
to 57% by 2002,
to 50% by 2008 and
to 49.7% by 2012

All of this is in pretax GDP or income. Post taxes, some apparent relief is afforded by government -- 40% in transfers to those in the lower 80%, but a walloping 250% in transfers to the top percentiles. It is a bone toss to confuse and hide matters.

To put this change into perspective, if the US had the same income distribution it had in say 1975, each family in the bottom 80% of the income distribution would have $11,000 more per year in income on average, or $916 per month. That is what they have lost. Half of the U.S. population lives in poverty or is low-income, according to U.S. Census data. This is a huge impoverishment of Americans. But a very serious problem for them is recalling what part arises from developing income inequality and loss and what is due to the Great Recession. Memories blur except on when jobs were lost.

We have mega problems few are even understanding and no one is dealing with. Only Sanders is addressing the issues. He has been talking with Elizabeth Warren and Joseph Stiglitz which is no surprise.
Comments
Vessel Name: Altaira
Vessel Make/Model: A Fair Weather Mariner 39 is a fast (PHRF 132), heavily ballasted (43%), high-aspect (6:1), stiff, comfortable, offshore performance cruiser by Bob Perry that goes to wind well (30 deg w/ good headway) and is also good up and down the Beaufort scale.
Hailing Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ
Crew: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
About:
Kimball Corson: I am a 75 year old solo sailor, by choice. However, I did take on a personable, but high maintenance female kitten, now a full grown cat, named KiKiPoo when she is sweet, or KatKatPo after she has just killed something like a bird or bat. [...]
Extra:
Although I was a lawyer and practiced law with good success for thirty years, creating significant new law, I never really believed in the law, the politics of law or in the over reaching self-interest of most lawyers I met. Too much exposure to Nietzsche and other good and seriously thoughtful [...]
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Profile

Who: Kimball Corson. Text and Photos not disclaimed or that are obviously not mine are copyright (c) Kimball Corson 2004-2016
Port: Lake Pleasant, AZ