We all have been on edge in wondering whether the US economy is on the right track. I am arguing that in fact, the economy is doing great. Total unemployment is reaching record lows at an impressive 3.6% under the Trump administration. The economy has added more than 304,000 jobs for American workers. Average hourly rates have gone up a steady 3.2% in the past year. Inflation is only up 1.6% in the last year, which is below the goal of the Fed. Average hourly wages are increasing slowly but surely due to employee productivity rather than government handouts. Tax deficits and tariffs placed on outside countries are driving American companies to bring their productions to the US and offer more jobs to the American workers.
Unemployment rates are undeniably the biggest factor in the US's ever-growing economy. This is due largely to the widespread integration and more Americans joining the workforce. Latino unemployment has fallen from 12.8% in December 2008 to only 4.2% in August 2019. This rate is continuing to decrease as more people legally enter the American workforce. This kind of growth goes past economics. This shows the importance of working Americans, and how we alone are in charge of our country’s prosperity. Black unemployment rates have also gone down from 16.8% in March 2010 to 5.5% in August 2019. Both rates are currently at the lowest ever recorded in history. The unemployment rate for black teenagers which was once at 48.9% in 2010 is now sitting at 15.7%, another record low for unemployment. These employment levels are strengthening the US economy, historically resetting our status and setting the US up for success (Thompson 2019).
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
Some may argue that hourly wages are the source of the US economy’s hesitant and slow-building growth. This could be an issue for low-income families working paycheck to paycheck. Raising the average worker’s minimum wage would decrease the need for job specialization and obtaining college degrees. The median annual earnings for full-time workers between the ages of 25-32 who have obtained bachelor’s degrees has grown from $6,700 in 1965 to $45,500 in 2013. The difference in median annual earnings of college and high school graduates in 1986 was $14,245. This number has grown to $17,500 in 2013. Getting a college degree is the way to ensure a financially comfortable life. If the government provides a comfortable life to the average Mcdonald's worker, nobody would be motivated to go to college and get a specific degree (Kurtzleben 2014). So, what happens if we do raise the minimum wage and pay our non-skilled workers exactly what they need to live a convenient life? Well, higher wages will therefore decrease the amount of labor demanded by companies due to the expense of more labor, and unemployment levels would shoot straight back up to where they were 10 years ago. A higher minimum wage would also make it extremely difficult for small businesses to stay open. Small businesses sit at the heart of America, the American dream. What happens if high minimum wages take the opportunity of owning your own business from the American people? The minimum wage is nothing more than a start to raising your wage yourself. In other words, the only valuable way to raise wages is through employee productivity, and of course, obtaining a college degree (Phelan 2019).
We have begun this economic growth under former President Obama. Luckily Trump took his opportunity to take the steady foundation of the American economy and soar it to new heights we never thought possible. The Trump tax cuts have benefitted middle-class Americans profoundly. Most Americans got a tax cut in 2017. 39.6% of all households ‘think’ they got a tax cut, and a whopping 64.8% received one. Raising taxes for a very small number of people, the tax bill did more good for more people, rather than raising taxes on one-third of the middle class predicted by the Tax Policy Center (Casselman 2019). Not only is Trump lowering taxes for the better majority of middle-class citizens, but he is also attempting to keep American jobs in the US by imposing major tariffs on trade deals with China. Some may refer to this as a Trade war. Trump placed tariffs on goods imported from China in an effort to put a halt on the United States’ constant trade with one of the world’s strongest powers. China retaliated by imposing its tariffs on US goods. Trump then responded by demanding that American companies end their ventures with China altogether. “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA” President Trump stated in a tweet. While this may be a somewhat hostile approach to the problem, Trump has a point. If American companies brought all their manufacturing and processing home to the US, this would create endless jobs for our ever-growing number of American people joining the workforce (Stein 2019).
In conclusion, the US economy has nothing to complain about- yet. The middle class is growing progressively through generous tax cuts affecting most Americans. Unemployment rates for all Americans are at record lows in 2019, and these rates are only declining. As far as the minimum wage issue goes, raising the minimum wage would prove inadequate for the economy then it would help it. This is because increasing wages would lower companies’ need for labor, thus increasing unemployment. The importance of getting a college degree today is greater than it ever has been. This is shown through the dramatic difference in wages between college graduates and high school graduates. Tax cuts are improving the lives of most middle-class families, rather than hurting them which was expected. The tariff war with China is an effort to bring more and more jobs to American workers, rather than producing in China, where labor is cheaper.
Stuck on your essay?
