Charles Schumer in Vox Media


On Budget & Economy: Measure distribution of growth, not just overall GDP growth

Many Americans are struggling in ways that seem out of step with a booming economy: 40% of American families struggled to meet at least one of their basic needs, including buying food, paying medical bills, or covering utility bills, rent, or mortgage.

But those gaps don't show up in official measurements like the GDP, which measures growth in the overall economy. Now Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Martin Heinrich are trying to change that. The idea, they say, is to shed light on where economic prosperity is showing up across different income groups--and, potentially, where it's not.

Their new bill, the Measuring Real Income Growth Act, would require reporting how GDP growth is distributed along the income scale. The bureau that reports overall GDP would have to put together distributional measures of economic growth to be released with quarterly and annual GDP reports starting in 2020, laying out how growth shows up across each decile of earners and the top 1 percent.

Source: Vox.com on 2018 New York Senate race Aug 28, 2018

The above quotations are from Vox Media (news website).
Click here for other excerpts from Vox Media (news website).
Click here for other excerpts by Charles Schumer.
Click here for a profile of Charles Schumer.
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org!
Click for details -- or send donations to:
1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140
E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org
(We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: Dec 02, 2023