Table 4 shows average earnings, for 2013, in California for a full-time state-and-local employee are $6,190. No other state even breaks the $6,000 barrier. Although Washington, D.C. — not a state, of course, but the recipient of our national tax dollars — came in at $6,391.

Even liberal states were lower:

• Connecticut: $5,739
• New York: $5,706
• Illinois: $5,231
• Massachusetts: $5,222

The national average was $4,603. That means California’s average earnings for state-and-local workers of $6,190 was 34 percent above the national average.

But doesn’t California have the highest median income per capita? No. It’s only 15th (for 2012), at $44,980. That’s just 5 percent above the national median income of $42,693.

To recapitulate: California’s state-and-local government workers make 34 percent more than the national average; while our people who pay the taxes for the government workers make just 5 percent above the national average.

Sure, the state is incredibly expensive. But it’s incredibly expensive for everybody. It’s just that one class, government functionaries, is living much better, in comparison to their fellow government workers in other states, than everybody else in this state.

And what do these highly paid bureaucrats do?

Mess up our lives.

Revenues from state and local individual income taxes, general sales and gross receipt taxes, motor fuel taxes, motor vehicle taxes and taxes on alcoholic beverages each hit all-time highs in the second quarter of this year, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.

That means that in no quarter of any year since the Census Bureau first started tracking state and local tax revenues in 1962 have Americans paid more in each of these categories of state and local taxes then they did in the quarter that ran from April through June of 2013.

Americans paid a record of $114.032 billion in state and local individual income taxes in the second quarter of this year, according to the Census Bureau. That was up $7.787 billion—or 7.3 percent—from the previous all-time record of $106.245 billion in state and local individual income taxes that Americans paid in the second quarter of 2008.

And that’s in addition to the massive federal taxes.

So governments have recovered from the Great Recession. But their subjects — excuse me, “citizens”?

As I’ve reported before, median income is down 7.2 percent since the Great Recession struck.

The government is thriving. The people are writhing.

“The typical American family now earns less in real terms than in 1989 after household incomes fell for the fifth consecutive year, highlighting how the sluggish recovery is crimping spending power even as the US Federal Reserve considers slowing its monetary stimulus.

“The economic recovery’s failure to deliver any gains to middle America underscores the continuing challenge for the Fed, which will on Wednesday decide whether to reduce its asset purchase from $85bn a month.”

Actually, it confirms the Fed's 12-year assault on the economy through increasing inflation and keeping interest rates at zero percent, preventing the middle class from earning interest on its savings. More of the same only will make things worse.

Basically, since Reagan left office in 1989, the economy has underperformed. His policies: cut taxes, cut regulations, no inflation. (He allowed too much spending, leading to deficits; but three out of four good policies ain't bad.)

“The figures will also add to pressure from the left for Barack Obama to appoint Janet Yellen – widely regarded as one of the policy makers most concerned about high unemployment – as the next Fed chair. Mr Obama has made median incomes one of the signature issues of his presidency.”

But she's an even bigger inflationist than current Fed boss Ben Bernanke, so she would make things even worse.

“According to the Census Bureau, the median household income fell from $51,100 to $51,017 in 2012, and is now 8.3 per cent below its pre-recession peak in 2007.

“The annual Census Bureau figures demonstrate what has gradually become a lost generation for the American middle class. “Poverty is higher today than it was in 2000 and household incomes are lower,” said Sheldon Danziger, president of the Russell Sage Foundation, which funds social science research.

“Mr Danziger warned the country would face “two lost decades” if federal spending cuts and slow progress in cutting unemployment continue to erode incomes.”

Actually, it's federal spending that's too high — so high it's eating into the very marrow of our economic existence — that's a major part of the problem. Since World War II, spending by the federal government never has exceeded 20 percent for long. But under Bush-Obama, spending has soared above 24 percent.

It's the spending that's too high. It's the spending that's choking the economy. And it's the spending that inevitably will come down because the backs of American workers are breaking under its burden.

Reagan showed everybody how to produce prosperity. But nobody follows him, including even his fellow Republicans: the Bushes, Dole, McCain, Bernanke, Greenspan, Romney, et al.

That will change because Americans will not tolerate the Bush-Obama-Greenspan-Bernanke Depression continuing much longer.

Of all the 50 states, California’s government workers make the highest pay, averaging $5,774 a month in March 2010, according to U.S. Census data. That works out to $69,288 a year.

Local government workers in Washington, D.C., made a little more, at $5,990. But D.C. gets vast funding from federal taxpayers, part of the $4,000,000,000,000.00 of our tax dollars that sluices through D.C.

For the 50 states and local governments, although a lot of federal money is involved, most money is grabbed from state citizens. No wonder California taxpayers are whacked at among the highest rates in the country.

And what do we show for it? Although unemployment has improved, it’s still the second worst in the country, behind Nevada.

Our schools commonly rank 48th of the states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.

Median income in California crashed 9 percent from 2006 to 2010, nearly double the 5 percent annual rate.

The roads are falling apart. The infrastructure is dilapidated. The state can’t solve its Delta water problems.

Yet the bureaucrats who run the whole shebang — mainly run it into the ground — are getting paid more than those in any other state.

If California were a private-sector company, it long ago would have gone bankrupt, its profitable parts, if any, sold off to the highest bidder.

But because so many people believe the fiction that government is somehow “different,” that it’s really all of “us” working “together,” this expensive, dysfunctional monstrosity continues to tax and regulate us to death — while being paid excessively.

A good example of the dysfunction is firefighters, who top the pay list in California at $9,774 per month on average, or $117,288 a year. Yet firefighting easily could privatized everywhere, or turned over to volunteer fire departments.

That’s unlikely to happen because the “people” don’t run California, the government-worker unions do. The unions force massive dues from their “members,” then use the money to get their bought politicians to pilfer the pockets of taxpayers at record levels. Not only that, but the unions have run up pension benefits $500 billion beyond the state’s current ability to pay.

Instead of trying to raise taxes $7 billion, as Gov. Jerry Brown wants, he should be cutting the massive pay, perks and pensions of government workers. The state just can’t afford it anymore. Common citizens — the private sector — are broke and suffering. The slaves can’t take any more lashes across their backs.

Feb. 7, 2012

One thing I keep blogging about is that the U.S. economy really has not grown in about 13 years. For example, there’s been no growth in median incomes in California.

A new chart, below, shows there’s been no net jobs creation at all in the United States the past 13 years. No wonder unemployment remains so high, although it did drop a little last month, to 8.5 percent nationally.

The chart shows that the smal increase in jobs so far in the 2010s barely has made up for the incredible loss of jobs throughout the dismal 2000s.

This explains the federal and state budget problems. When incomes and jobs growth stopped, governments should have stopped growing, too. After all, government is basically a parasite on the private sector. It taxes what private people and businesses produce. If that private production stagnates — as has happened for 13 years — then the only way government can “grow” is through deficits, tax increases and inflation; which is what we’re seeing.

As I also keep saying, if Gov. Jerry Brown wants to spend more money — his new budget seeks to spend another $6 billion a year — then he should improve the state’s business climate. More jobs, paying higher wages, translate into more taxpayers paying into state coffers.

But he’s not doing that. Instead, he’s seeking a $7 billion tax increase.

That would only make things worse by taking money from people and businesses who create jobs.

Jan. 7, 2012