I heard this news lately and found it refreshing. There are so many positives to this time we’re living in.
If you think about government, what is its job? The most important thing government can do is ensure rights, defend our borders, and create a context for prosperity. That word “prosperity” really means a healthy economy. So, let’s look about our economy
- Right now (Oct 2024), we are at full employment. We have the lowest unemployment since 1968. Think about that. It’s awesome. If you listen to the mainstream media you’d think we’re living during the depression. Mississippi is America’s poorest state. That’s the worst in the US economically, but its residents earn on average more than Brits, Canadians, or Germans.
- Our inflation is at 2.2 percent. So by the way, the lowest in the G7.
- What about GDP? What about growth? It’s the strongest in the world. We are going to be responsible for 80 percent (according to the World Bank) of 2025 forecasts in World GDP. In 1990, the US accounted for two-fifths of GDP of the G7. Today, it makes up half. Output per person is now 30 percent higher than in Western Europe and Canada, and 60 percent higher than in Japan. Gaps that have roughly doubled since 1990.
- Lately, China has gone backwards, having closed in rapidly on America in the years before the pandemic. Its GDP has slipped from about three-quarters of America’s in 2021 to two-thirds today.
- The US over the last 4 years has become the world’s largest energy producer. We produce a third more energy than the Saudis and Russia. Over the past 4 years, Biden granted 50 percent more oil and gas drilling permits than under Trump.
- The Biden deficit was cut by one-third. It tripled under Trump.
- Immigration the last six months is far below what it was for the same period 4 years ago.
- An unrivaled 76 record highs in the stock market in the last year.
We still have work to do, but there are 190 nations in the world. In terms of prosperity, your rights, your ability to express who you want to be, 189 would trade places with us. Let’s take some pause in just how ridiculously lucky we are for being born in the USA.
I’m parroting all of this from Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a world-class academic from Yale and the Pivot Podcast
