Immigration reform has increasingly become a hot button issue for US politicians due to a growing number of Hispanic voters. Accordingly, President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind protections created by the Obama Administration for so-called Dreamers, i.e. immigrants whose parents illegally brought them into the US as children, has hit the political world like a category five hurricane. Proponents of the policy reversal see the decision as a step forward in the effort to undo the executive overreach of the Obama Administration. As expected, the vast majority of reactions from individuals across the political spectrum and business world have been emotional, but the outrage shared by critics is more than just an emotional response.
For most, the idea that children are to punished for the sins of their parents is unjust. In many respects, Trump’s decision was an issue of right versus legal. Instead of taking a moral position and relying on the Courts to decide the legality of Obama’s policy, Trump obviously focused on the legality of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) then made a judgment. As the head of the Executive Branch, the President is supposed to execute the Law, not write or judge it. This means he was likely just trying to do his job, even though the Executive Branch does seem to actually have the authority to adopt DACA. It also means government can and must work to craft a solution before the US government does a great injustice against young victims of a broken immigration system.
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The unemployment rate is a number that is talked about a great deal. Based on the number of people who allegedly want to work, this overly relied upon value is fairly dubious, but it does factor into a far more important number: wage growth. What makes wage growth more important is that it shows the strength of the economy by revealing the need for businesses to pay their workers more and the capacity of working consumers to spend more. Wage growth shows how well wealth is being circulated, or distributed, throughout the economy, which means the economy is working. Wage growth also reveals whether or not workers are progressing toward financial security and prosperity.
Proceeding the 2017 Labor Day holiday, hiring in the US slowed while lackluster wage growth stalled. A large part of the problem appears to be a lack of qualified candidates. Entrepreneurs like Tesla’s Elon Musk predicts technology will out-mode most jobs in the future, which will create the need for government to provide a universal basic income. Reliance on public welfare is an easy solution, if profitable corporations are willing to allow a significant share of their profits to be taxed and redistributed to a massive unemployed population. As this is an unlikely solution, which would also disenfranchise most of the population with terrible consequences, e.g. Yemen, solutions are needed that solve this long-term issue and today’s lack of qualified candidates. Hurricane Harvey and its widespread destruction is a blessing to energy producers. Flood waters from the Category Four storm have disrupted production at refineries and created temporary shortages in gasoline and other refined petroleum products, thus signaling futures traders to bid up prices in anticipation of rising prices. Confronted with normalizing prices due to the potential realization of peak demand, overproduction across the globe, and a persistent supply glut, the energy sector stands to gain from the losses of so many. Like socialism in the face of corrupt and abusive government, capitalism and its rationing mechanisms break down in abnormal conditions, such as the aftermath of hurricanes.
Economies exist to serve the needs of people. Infamous Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s plan to profit on the seemingly perpetual Afghanistan War, which offers no viable end-game strategy and further incentivizes the continuation of conflict, serves as another example where capitalism actually conflicts with human need. When profit making encourages behavior that causes harm to people and fosters hazardous situations, market forces must be overridden for the public good, not relied upon. Under such circumferences, military engagement, disaster relief, regulation, and other government interventions are needed. Social interventions, such charitable donations and the public shaming of exploiters, are also needed. |
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April 2020
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