What About the GDP?

Everywhere I look, it's the GDP! Graphs and charts about the GDP, and the GDP forever. As if the GDP means something important. I say it doesn't. Who cares? Why don't I give a non copper penny about the GDP? I'll tell you in succinct phraseology, to borrow a term from deceased Paul Ford, who played the mayor in the film of The Music Man. (Was there ever a more wonderful film?)

The term GDP, (gross domestic product) was elevated a few years ago from GNP, (gross national product) as if to make it achieve some new, more heavenly meaning or accuracy. It's the same old thing.

First and paramount, the GDP INCLUDES GOVERNMENT SPENDING! Now let that soak in, dear reader. In other words, Dubya's pumping hundreds of billions more into the Dept. of Education and other bureaucracies (rather than abolish them, especially Education) means that the GDP goes up by that much. When Monica Bill gave us the largest tax hike in history, and his Democrat congressional groupies agreed, the bucks collected went into more regulations, and more BS, that further takes away out liberty and freedom. Guess what? The GDP went up!

Now vote for me, 'cause I raised the GDP! Let's declare a holiday.

As tons of moola emit from the Government Printing Office down on 14th St NW, near the Washington Monument in D.C., we have what is known as inflation. Inflation usually results in prices going up, although prices going up is NOT inflation. When prices go up, guess what? Yep, the GDP goes up! (George Washington would surely like to have his monument further away from the presses, but he can't change that.)

Whoopee! I raised the GDP, now vote for me, and give me some sort of award.

Americans today, are spending far more than they earn. We have a negative savings rate, in other words. Some say it is consumer spending which is keeping the stock market from going to where it belongs, namely at the same level as Saddam's bunker. How can they spend more than they make? Easy. With credit cards and credit. Americans are trillions of dollars in debt. Debts that may never be paid, but which continually increase. The GDP goes up, even though millions are already technically bankrupt, as is the US government.

Hot damn! The GDP went up. Set off the fireworks.

The US government has non-funded liabilities of well over $10 TRILLION, and some say $20 TRILLION. The GDP goes up, the more it spends. The US government is bankrupt, and spending in pieces of paper with ink on them goes up like the mercury in July, and the GDP goes up.

Hallelujah! The GDP went up. When does the parade start?

Americans are so mired in debts and payments, that the light of day may never dawn on their economic situations. But the GDP goes up. Prices go up, and butter is now close to $3 a pound, almost triple of a couple of years ago. That means that high butter prices make the GDP go up. A car that 40 years ago could be bought new, and at the same time a new home paid for by a single wage earner family, is now a fairy tale. But the GDP has gone up.

I was in the theatre business for 11 years, and my normal admission price was 75 cents. It's ten times that now, and the GDP has gone up. At my chain of ice cream parlours, a double dip cone was 65 cents, and it's three times that now…but the GDP has gone up.

When I was growing up in Washington D.C., the federal government was teeny tiny compared to what it is now. D.C.'s environs were dusty crossroads with a couple of old houses, and now are major metropolitan areas, but the GDP has gone up.

The GDP going up, merely means that the dollars have lost their purchasing power, and the government is out of control. The GDP going up, means that another bureaucracy has been funded with funny money, and more armed bureaucrats sent into the field to threaten and fine us because we forgot to put on our goggles, or wear certain types of boots, when we kill the weeds.

The GDP going up, merely means that dollars have been debased, and everything has the same value, but in dollars, they all cost more. Is a gallon of gasoline worth more now at $1.50 than it was at 25 cents? Same gas! Dollars have gone down, not prices gone up. But the GDP has gone up.

Is a Mercedes at $85,000 worth more than the new one I bought for $3600 in 1961? It may have more bells and whistles, but the quality is the same. Dollars have gone down, and the GDP has gone up. If a temperature gauge on a car was broken, and doesn't register correctly, would that change the fact that the radiator was boiling over? "Gee, the temperature gauge says normal, I wonder why all that steam is coming out from under the hood?" The real temperature of that engine isn't normal at all. The measuring device has been corrupted. The dollar is a broken temperature gauge. The economy is so twisted and corrupted, that no one knows how much Uncle Sam owes, or where it is going to come from; when the line forms at the window. The pay will be in ever more worthless pieces of paper with ink on them, which are backed by "THE FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE US GOVERNMENT." Isn't that a marvelous endorsement? Better buy a wheelbarrow in which to carry your valuable "money."

Sorry, I'll take the gold and silver, which owe nothing, and need no backing because they are self backed. Why "back" something that has value? What would you "back" gold and silver with? Dollars? Yes, that is a funny...you may laugh. The fallacious giddyup-go figures that emanate out of D.C., further raise the GDP. How many taxpayer dollars go into releasing, doctoring, faking, and dreaming up those statistics, on which all "economists" base their prognostications? If the IRS gives wrong answers to queries in a huge percentage of times, can we expect accurate figures from other government stooges? Are the rest of dregs in D.C. more accurate than the IRS? It's all so much garbage. Who knows what really goes on in D.C.? Who knows how many are really unemployed? Do we really have less than 2% inflation? Please! Who cares? What costly government statistic, which is probably wildly inaccurate anyway, affects you and I? Pigs will fly when any government emits truth from its headquarters, in time of war or peace.

My suggestion, is to stop saving in dollars, and get into something that is self backed. You might also want to read my book, CONSEQUENCES free, by requesting it at [email protected] . No, I keep no record of who I send them to, and have no mailing list. Above all, protect yourself, because the federal government won't.