October 6, 2016 | No Comments
President Barack Obama made his case for a deliberate, measured path toward economic progress in an op-ed published Thursday in The Economist that reads like a plea to disenchanted voters tempted by the economic populism of Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In the essay the outbound 44th American president acknowledges an enduring sense of “uncertainty and unease” at home and abroad surrounding the state of political affairs in the United States while arguing that much of the anxiety stems not from economic insecurity but, rather, lingering fear.
Using similar language to that of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in her Aug. 25 denouncement of the “alt-right” movement and its role in the Trump campaign, the president empathizes with those holding “legitimate concerns about long-term economic forces” while stressing the need to overcome blind fear.
“It’s true that a certain anxiety over the forces of globalization, immigration, technology, even change itself, has taken hold in America,” he wrote. “Much of this discontent is driven by fears that are not fundamentally economic. The anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment expressed by some Americans today echoes nativist lurches of the past.”
While never referencing Trump directly, the president discusses how policies and ideas such as this might be appealing to many.
“It’s no wonder that so many are receptive to the argument that the game is rigged,” Obama wrote, subtly nodding to Trump’s claims of a “rigged” system. “But amid this understandable frustration, much of it fanned by politicians who would actually make the problem worse rather than better, it is important to remember that capitalism has been the greatest driver of prosperity and opportunity the world has ever known.”
Citing economic feats from the past several decades — reduced poverty rates, a modest rise in wages, increased labor-force participation — and of his own policies, Obama said he had not accomplished all he sought to do but that hope remained for a more prosperous future.
“Despite all manner of division and discord, a second Great Depression was prevented. The financial system was stabilized without costing taxpayers a dime and the auto industry rescued,” he wrote, describing the economy’s emergence from the deep recession he inherited.
“The results are clear: a more durable, growing economy; 15 [million] new private-sector jobs since early 2010; rising wages, falling poverty, and the beginnings of a reversal in inequality; 20 [million] more Americans with health insurance, while health-care costs grow at the slowest rate in 50 years; annual deficits cut by nearly three-quarters; and declining carbon emissions.”
Still, Obama writes, much work remains. Rising economic inequality, slowing productivity, and unsustainability will be continuing challenges for the U.S. going forward, he argues.
“A capitalism shaped by the few and unaccountable to the many is a threat to all,” he writes. “Economies are more successful when we close the gap between rich and poor and growth is broadly based. A world in which 1% of humanity controls as much wealth as the other 99% will never be stable.”
Notably, the president also casts climate change as not only a matter of environmental concern, but also an economic one.
“Sustainable economic growth requires addressing climate change,” he writes. Progress in America also helped catalyze the historic Paris climate agreement, which presents the best opportunity to save the planet for future generations.