Reply #5: What to believe... [View All]

[Psephos]

It's nearly impossible to sort out the signal from the noise.

Much attention is focused on few statistics. By choosing which indicators to highlight, one can say these are good times or bad times. The choice is almost always driven by a person's politics.

Wage and salary statistics (cited in this article and some others I've read) don't include sales commissions, bonuses, consulting fees, rents, interest received, dividends, proprietors' income, health insurance benefits or transfer payments such as Social Security or grants-in-aid. They also don't include unreported ("under the table") economic activity, which forms at least 10% of the economy.

A broad-based statistical measure like Personal Income, which does include all these things except for the underground economy, paints a different picture. Personal Income has risen about 7% in the last year alone. Income tax receipts have shown even faster growth, and are at an all-time high.

Here on DU we're oriented by our politics to picking out the stats that paint a bleak picture. At other (RW) sites, just the opposite happens. The truth is somewhere in the middle, most likely. These are not the best of times; these are not the worst of times. I do know that most European countries would gladly trade their growth statistics for total personal income, total GDP, and total tax receipts for America's. That says something.

BTW, I live in Michigan. The older industrial cities are in decay; Detroit is underwater. I harbor no illusions about regional conditions.

Peace.


Truth is built with facts as a house is with stones--but
a collection of facts is no more a truth than a heap of stones is a house.
- Jules Henry Poincare