"F. George McDuffee" wrote:

distro pruned to rcm and amc

On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:40:52 -0500, Cliff
wrote:

http://link.huffingtonpost.com/181x....S-_-9AHpMA2690
"Taxes Fall To Lowest Level Since 1950, By One Measure"
[
...
Actually, as a share of the nation's economy, Uncle Sam's take this year will be
the lowest since 1950, when the Korean War was just getting under way.

And for the third straight year, American families and businesses will pay less
in federal taxes than they did under former President George W. Bush, ...
...
Income tax payments this year will be nearly 13 percent lower than they were in
2008, the last full year of the Bush presidency. Corporate taxes will be lower
by a third, ...
...
]
============
Generally I do not reply to Cliff's posts, however this
appears to be a significant point. The fly in this
particular jar of ointment is the calculation of GDP. The
current GDP appears to be grossly overstated when compared
to the earlier data, e.g. 1950.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product
snip
"Similarly, if there is a long term shift from non-market
provision of services (for example cooking, cleaning, child
rearing, do-it yourself repairs) to market provision of
services, then this trend toward increased market provision
of services may mask a dramatic decrease in actual domestic
production, resulting in overly optimistic and inflated
reported GDP. ==This is particularly a problem for
economies which have shifted from production economies to
service economies.==" {emphasis added}
snip

This appears to explain much of the current economic
problems, particularly lack of tax revenues at all levels of
government, as this appears to be yet another case of
beating a dying [and in many cases dead] horse or attempting
to get blood out of a turnip.

Reviewing the above article, and based on personal
observation, not only are the GDP numbers distorted by the
massive transfer of services from the home [where these were
not counted] to the market [where these are counted] but the
GDP numbers are also "pencil whipped" as is the CPI.


Subsistence farming, coming to your neighborhood real soon...