[QUOTE=TravelingHere;1063647191]
Quote:
Originally Posted by 69in2it69
Learn to read. The chart shows a long term trend in the percentage of work age people participating in the work force.
But let me help you, I'll share a bigger picture so maybe it'll help you identify the trend ( a trend is taking two points on opposite ends of a graph and drawing a line through them.. just saying):
Here's the last 35 years. Notice how it reversed under Trump?
4.5% is the difference between now and then. These people are not working and not looking.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...te-since-1990/
The free trade agreements in the pursuit of cost efficiencies coincided with more people dropping out.
|
The labor force participation rate is still down from its peak in 2000. it plummeted in 2008 due to the mortgage crisis and recession. It finally stabilized under Obama in 2014, no thanks to Paul Ryan. And started to show some gains under Trump. However I don’t really give that much credit to Trump for it. A little bump in 2019 possibly due to tax changes but another plummet due to the pandemic in 2020.
What bothers me is that the graph shows a 4 percent drop from 2008. Where did those workers go? Do workers who retire still get counted in the civilian labor force even if they plan not to work anymore. How much of that drop is accounted for by our aging workforce.
But to get back to the topic at hand, TravelingHere is not wrong because he thinks we need to bring back manufacturing to the United States. However generalized tariffs are a really bad way to do it.
Targeted tariffs, government incentives and deregulation can all have an impact. But it requires a certain amount of picking winners and losers. Those manufacturing companies that are supply chain based and important to the national economy, or businesses that are only marginally profitable overseas, or businesses that employ certain types of workers and can revitalize certain regions in the US could all be up for consideration.
Having to convince CEO’s that it’s more important or better yet more profitable to reshore manufacturing to the US is a really difficult task. The Biden administration has done a lot of work that I think will pay off in the coming decade in chip manufacturing, and green energy related fields. Trump’s tariffs could do a lot of damage to the investment that we’ve already made.