Re: GDP?
Wow. What a huge leap from GDP to per capita GDP to income and back again. GDP literally has nothing to do with income. Its simply an estimate (and others have commented on how bad these estimates have been over time) of the market value of all the final goods and services produced (in this case) U.S companies and individuals inside the U.S (not to be confused with the sub-set: GNP, just those goods and services produced by US companies around the world).
Per Capita Income, though related generally, has little or nothing to do with GDP. Look at the most recent 'productivity' numbers released, which showed the American worker being more "productive" than ever. Why? The major increase in productivity wasn't the number of 'units' produced, but that the average wage paid for labor went down 1% on a real basis, making the COST of producing the same number of units lower.
The power of compounding is a wonderous thing. It can be applied to almost everything. Including our national debt. If a policy were enacted that lowered GDP by 1%, but lowered our deficit by MORE than 1%, wouldn't that be a positive increase in our overall economy??
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