TW: As the Republicans rev up the socialist meme re the Dems and Obama please review the data below. Not only is absolute economic growth bad, the distribution of the wealth has been bad. Yet...yet, we are meant to fear the Dems and embrace the same economic know-nothings who got us into this hole.
From Economist:
"...This decade - the 2000s - is set to be the weakest for American real GDP growth since the 1930s. The average growth rate is on course to be 2.5%, below the 3.1% recorded in the 1980s and 1990s and the 3.3% in the dismal (in popular perception) 1970s.
Think back to the start of the decade and all the guff we were told about the internet ushering in a new era of growth. Think back also to the Bush tax cuts which were supposed to be good for growth. Indeed this decade has seen the widest dispersion of wealth since the 1920s; it's not exactly been a triumph for trickle-down economics, has it? It can't be blamed on "socialism" either. Government share of GDP over the last decade has been 17.5-18%, below the 19.1% average over the last three decades.
In truth, of course, economies are driven by a whole host of factors, of which tax policy is far from the most important. UBS thinks the main factor behind the slowdown has been demographic; the participation of females in the workforce has slowed. Worth remembering, also, that GDP per capita is a better indication of individual wealth than pure GDP growth; on that measure, the European Union has been doing a lot better than the general impression in the media suggests. Over the decade 1997-2007, the EU grew at a 1.9% annual rate per capital and America 2.1%; not so bad for a "sclerotic" continent."
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