New wave of migrants puts US and other countries to the test
In the United States, one of the key indicators used to measure the strength of a nation’s economy—its gross domestic product (GDP)—is often used to measure the health of its workforce. When businesses grow and people come to work, GDP grows.
But this measure does not reflect the strength of the US economy, nor is often a guide to the health of the United States as a nation.
In fact, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) as “total output of goods and services produced within the United States by industry, except for public consumption.”
That means that the United States’ GDP, in the end, only measures the final good or service that is provided to the public. The economy’s gross domestic product is not designed to reflect how efficiently the nation benefits from its growth, and to what degree the people who work therein receive a healthy work environment, which includes good pay, good benefits, a good work-life balance, good social networks, and so on.
This is hardly surprising, as the US economy is the result of an economy of the people, not that of the people and the money. The economy is not a function of the private sector alone, but one of a myriad of factors that together create a healthy and vibrant economy.
However, the growth of the global economy has become a source of real concern for governments worldwide. This has happened even as there is no sign that the US government is responding to it; rather, it is the other way around, with President Trump’s “America First” and “Make America Great Again” policies.
The global economy grew 7.6% in 2018, overtaking the previous year’s record-setting growth of 7.1%. In the United States, the growth rate of the economy’s gross domestic product was 3.6% last year, according to estimates from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, with personal income rising at the fastest pace in nearly a decade.
“We are seeing new challenges and some of the most severe financial crises in decades, and they’re related to what’s been happening on the global stage,” James Williams