Troofernomics

Bob Bowman, who mysteriously didn't run for president this year, now writes an open letter to Barack Obama, explaining to him the "truth". Unfortunately for him, I think he is about as welcome as a potential advisor as Bill Ayers. Regardless, he repeats his bizarre truther spin on economics, the first part of which I covered a long time ago, now adding a new twist.

Productivity in this country has doubled over and over again since the 1950s. Yet wages are a fraction of what they were then! In real terms, family income is about where it was in the 1950s, but the number of hours worked per family has tripled! This means that real wages per hour worked are roughly a third of what they were in the 1950s. If workers today got the same portion of the wealth they create with their labor as we did who entered the work force in the 1950s, they could support their families with one job … working two days a week!

This claim is completely bizarre of course, they have no more an understanding of economics than they do of engineering. The number of hours per week worked has actually come down significantly over the last 100 years, peaking during WWII for obvious reasons, but about even since the 1950s. Yes, more women work, the number has moved from around 20% to 60%, but the number of men working has actually decreased as a percentage. Additionally the size of the average household has decreased, so the number of hours worked per capita would have to increase even more. So unless there is some hidden surge in child labor, amounting to about 150% of the adult working population, that we don't know about, Bishop Bob is just making this crap up.