Global trade and investment have increased dramatically over the past 30 years. On one hand, importing lower-cost goods from other countries has saved Americans money. On the other, it has cost American jobs.
How many jobs? About 6 million from the manufacturing sector alone between 1999 and 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, while outsourced jobs to China explains 44 percent of the decline in U.S. jobs from 1990 to 2007, automation and more efficient processes have also played a role.
Some experts claim innovation, automation and new technology are responsible for up to 80 percent of manufacturing job losses over the past two decades. There are also economists who believe global trade is crucial to American prosperity and disagree with Donald Trump’s plans to implement tariffs or cut down trade with countries like China and Mexico.
Thanks to the digital revolution, smaller companies have the capacity to compete on a global level, but comparatively few are doing so. It is estimated that fewer than 1 percent of the nearly 30 million U.S. companies registered to sell abroad actually engage in global sales. This means more U.S. firms have the potential to expand growth and productivity to global markets.
Digitization makes it easier for small startups to reach global customers; consider how eBay and Amazon got their start.
Global expansion advocates say the U.S. government could play a role in connecting individual cities and smaller companies with foreign investors. It also could introduce more policies and funding to help job losses with reinvestment in affected communities.
In one of his first acts as president, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. This withdrawal gives China — not a participant in the TPP — the opportunity to forge leadership in Asian trade agreements. The president has indicated that he is interested in negotiating individual trade deals with TPP countries in order to procure better terms for the U.S.
Some analysts believe the U.S. should renegotiate agreements to lower tariffs and other regulatory barriers to encourage various nations to specialize in certain exports in which they have operational expertise.
Presently, the U.S. imports about $500 billion more than it exports. However, the U.S. remains the world’s largest economy and, despite the loss of manufacturing jobs to other countries, its share of global gross domestic product has remained relatively consistent over the past 36 years, ranging from 26 percent in 1980 to 25 percent in 2016.
Is it a secret that American politics are contentious, divided and rocky? Yet, one topic has the potential to bring both sides to the table: Infrastructure.
About half of Americans retire between the ages of 61 and 65. Among today’s retired households, a traditional pension or retirement plan appears to be one of the differences between a high- and low-income lifestyle. That’s because among the 41 percent of retirees whose annual income is less than $25,000, only 21 percent receive income from a pension or retirement plan. Of those who receive $50,000 or more, 80 percent enjoy this form of income stream.
With the increasing cost of health care and constraints of a fixed income, many retirees nix vacations for lower-cost visits with family. However, there are plenty of destinations that can be affordable to visit on a budget. The following are a few ideas for this summer and the rest of 2017.
Some retirees underspend throughout their golden years, sacrificing quality of life to assure they don’t outlive their income. Others resist their desire to be philanthropic because of concerns that donations could leave them short on money down the road.
Social entrepreneurs use new approaches within the business world to help solve social problems. The term was first coined in 1980, but has entered the mainstream recently as the millennial generation permeates the business world. A recent survey found that around half of today’s Wharton Business School graduates who go on to start their own business will incorporate some form of social benefit as part of their model.
