Written by Lorian Eades   

Very few economists can communicate their black art in such a manner that even Sarah Palin and Joe The Plumber might grasp a glimpse of reality. The result is that nearly every lay person hears a cacophony of terrifyingly big numbers mixed with an endless drumming of misleading magic market mojo dogma announcing the eminent tsunami of destruction headed our way. Our only hope can be found in faithfully sacrificing to those anointed by The Big Boy In The Sky to interpret the tarot cards of prosperity and guide the blind, ignorant, corrupt and lazy masses. After all, these earthly supreme being surrogates are destined to own this world and the next. We must accept their ordination as evidenced by their magnetic ability to attract treasure. They are the true chosen people. We must not question or offend them lest they abandon us to oblivion. We must protect the wealthy. They are our only hope. They will save us by suppressing the dark flaws in our souls and forcing us to hold fast to a greater morality by towing their line.

David Cay Johnston is the antidote to the deadly poison of economic discussion. He has the insight to see the issues more clearly and frame them such that anyone willing to put aside their insanity can recognize the problem and envision the solution.

His most recent major article presents a case for how our citizens lost $6.6 trillion dollars in lost income since the year 2000. A really big number! More importantly, he presents clearly how different an individual’s life would have been if that lost income had been realized.

He begins with a comment about a recent statement from President Obama, “[The] underlying trend for middle class families, that they don’t feel, no matter how hard the work, they’re able to get ahead in the same way that their parents were able to get ahead.” What a stark contrast to a record stock market, record job creations (if you don’t count anything period before the great recession) and record corporate profits. Johnston believes that the reason most of us feel a bit left behind can be attributed directly to “a very large sum of missing money”. He calculated that US citizens have failed to realize $6.6 trillion in income since the year 2000. He chose 2000 as a starting date since it represented the beginning of the Bush tax cuts and the promise of a new century in which workers were promised much prosperity as a function of trickle down voodoo.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/7/economy-bush-taxcutsgrowthjobs.html

Here are some highlights from the article:

He uses tax return data to calculate income. He compares income each year to the year 2000 benchmark and uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator to adjust for inflation.

In 10 of the 12 years (2000 - 2012) that the Bush tax cuts have been in place, average income compared to year 2000 dropped for working Americans. In the other 2 years, it only rose moderately. The total “missing income” is $6.6 trillion.

To put this into some kind of perspective:

Every taxpayer missed making another $48,010 over that 12 year period.

It is an amount equal to all the income for every American worker for 9 months of a year.

It is about $11 dollars a day for every taxpayer magically showing up every day for 12 years (4380 days).

Of course, if everyone had made another $48K in income, they would have to pay a bit more in taxes. After all Federal Tax liability, Social Security and Medicare, every taxpayer would have had an average of $39,500 more in folding money in their pockets.

So what could this much money in the hands of the average citizen accomplish?

You could pay off all the student loans - a total of $1.26 trillion.

You could also the pay off all the automobile loans - a total of $892 billion.

Then you could pay off all the credit card debt - a total of $827 billion.

After paying off all that debt, and paying all the required taxes, Americans would have another $2.4 trillion left in their wallets - about $17,000 per taxpayer.


I believe that the impact of this “lost income” is actually understated by Johnston. He does not consider the multiplier effect of so much additional spending would have on local prosperity and wealth, increased tax base, job creation and economic growth. The actual effect might have been multiples of the $6.6 trillion (perhaps as much as $20 trillion according to some estimates).

Also, I must add that if we had just taken last year’s increase in corporate profits ($1 trillion) and used it to pay of our poorest workers a bit better, half of the work force would get a $20,000 a year pay increase. Kind of makes Barack “Broke Dick” Obama’s push for a $10 an hour minimum wage look like pathetic bullshit. Just another example of his “lets play nice”, “too little, too late” compromises that attempt to reign in the insane asylum’s factions playing capture the flag.

Of course, we always get misled by such bullshit.

Just consider the total amount stolen by all the muggings, bank robberies and store robberies last year. What a crime wave! We need to crack down on these psychopaths destroying our world. Unfortunately, that amount was less that half the amount of earned wages that were stolen by companies cheating their employees. How many good, God fearing folks are serving hard time for stealing from their employees by not paying overtime or not paying the taxes they withheld or simply not counting all the hours on a time sheet? Not many… after all, they are our only hope.

In the end, if you want to solve our most destructive problems you only need to insure that working stiffs are given an equable share of the pie by reigning in those "job creators”. Otherwise, you are just jousting at windmills.