Economies that do well tend to have a wide and diversified business base and not overly reliant on any one sector or industry. The US economy runs largely on agriculture, tech, and entertainment, but the people are far more faceted than that. It needs to be tapped into.
Even though thousands of manufacturing jobs have moved overseas in recent years, we must reclaim the ability to make products at home. These jobs are moving overseas because of the choices of the business owners, not immigrants. Penalize when they ship jobs over seas, and give incentives to bring them back.
Regardless of any particular economic strength it is important to have a competitive and export focused small and medium sized business sector. Help smaller businesses expand and stop penalizing our industries by making them pay high tariffs.
Economic downturns reduce state and local tax revenue, at which point balanced budget requirements force state and local governments to cut spending. Those spending cuts cause tangible harm by reducing the quality of public services. But they also exacerbate the downturn by reducing incomes. States need additional aid (some targeted, some general) to combat the shortfalls and to stimulate the state/local economy.
While white-collar America works from home and millions lose their jobs, millions of other mostly working-class people are keeping society functioning by delivering parcels, staffing grocery stores, driving buses, and otherwise keeping the lights on. Meanwhile, front-line health care workers are risking their lives to save others. People working in these sectors which the country absolutely does not want to shut down should have their normal pay supplemented by a few extra dollars an hour at federal expense to address growing grievances. That will not only help stabilize the economy but will help the most important sectors of the economy actually add staff at a critical time.
Infrastructure stimulus faces a basic paradox. Every politician likes the idea of low interest rates to build something useful over the long run, but spending on infrastructure is rarely a good short-term fix for a crisis (and that's the problem, they ONLY look short term, never the big picture). It's clear that worries about coronavirus will continue to next year and beyond, so Congress Needs to act now to make sure projects start rolling in 12 months. Stop partisan bickering and actually do your jobs, congress. Yeah, I'm looking at you"
A raise in wages. This means decent and fair compensation for work (I.E. a living wage) that enables all working people, regardless of gender, race, citizenship status, orientation, religion or ability, to meet their most basic needs. Wages have remained largely stagnant over 40 years, despite a 70% rise in net productivity. Pre-pandemic median annual earnings for 44% of US workers was just $18,000 and almost 50% of government assistance in 2016 went to full-time working people who fell below the poverty line. In 2021, that number is even higher. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has not been raised in over 10 years.
Roosevelt said, "In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By business I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living."
Raising the minimum wage increases worker productivity. Studies by leading economists, including Nobel laureate George Akerlof of Georgetown University, found that employee morale and work ethic increase when employees believe they are paid a fair wage. Economists have also linked higher wages to better physical and mental health and reduced "decision fatigue," leading to higher productivity.
Raising the minimum wage reduces turnover. Higher wages lead to lower employee turnover, resulting in reduced recruiting and training costs. High turnover costs companies more money than keeping people there.
Raising the minimum wage reduces absenteeism. When workers earn higher wages they are absent from work less, leading to increased productivity. They don't want to miss out on said money.
Raising the minimum wage does not kill jobs. Leading economists have found that increases in the minimum wage have no effect on employment, including employment in high-impact sectors like restaurants and retail. Dan Price, the head of Seattle-based Gravity Payments, made it so all of his employees here will start earning our $70k min salary. And they are still going strong. Proof that it can work.
Raising the minimum wage increases consumer spending and boosts the economy. A study by Doug Hall and David Cooper estimated that a $2.55 increase in the minimum wage would increase the earnings of low-wage workers by $40 billion and result in a significant increase in GDP and employment.
Before the onset of the pandemic, one in four working people in the US approximately 34 million people lacked paid sick leave. While just 8% of working people in the top quarter of earnings lacked access to paid sick days, almost half of those in the lowest quarter faced the same challenge. Additionally, those in gig, domestic caregiving, food processing, and farm work, did not have access to healthcare and other benefits, particularly among immigrant and migrant communities. In the US, the pandemic is revealing how running an economy on a system that ties healthcare to employment and incentivizes limitations to paid leave and basic benefits impacts us all.
Working parents in low-wage work have been found to spend up to a quarter of their annual income on childcare expenses. Today, many working parents are struggling to manage work and childcare responsibilities intensified by school and childcare center closings. Care work has long been undervalued in the US economy, which lags behind many developed countries in its approaches to childcare and eldercare. Care workers still continue to face low wages as well. Consequently, up to 42% of care workers have been found to rely on public assistance for their food, healthcare, and cash needs.
Partisan politics needs to be trashed in order for us to move forward. Do what's best for the nation and its people that is your job Congress, President, and Judiciary. Stop playing with our lives to make yourself feel better about yourself. Also, STOP using the Stock Market as the measure of the economy.
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