What U.S. Economic Recovery? Five Destructive Myths

In summary: I am interested in what PFer's below the age of 30 have to say about the above paragraph, particulary the section I highlighted. What plans do you have to adapt to this, and even turn it to your advantage ?In summary, Nobel laureate Michael Spence's research shows that the majority of American job growth from 1990 to 2008 came from companies operating in the US market, rather than those doing business in global markets. These jobs, however, tend to be lower paid and lower skilled compared to outsourced jobs. Spence now advocates for a German-style industrial policy to keep high-value jobs in the US. The current myth that businesses are waiting for economic and regulatory certainty to invest back home is also
  • #1
rhody
Gold Member
681
3
I am no economics expert but I think this http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2076568-4,00.html" [Broken] is fair IMO, however, you decide...
Nobel laureate Michael Spence, author of The Next Convergence, has looked at which American companies created jobs at home from 1990 to 2008, a period of extreme globalization. The results are startling. The companies that did business in global markets, including manufacturers, banks, exporters, energy firms and financial services, contributed almost nothing to overall American job growth. The firms that did contribute were those operating mostly in the U.S. market, immune to global competition — health care companies, government agencies, retailers and hotels. Sadly, jobs in these sectors are lower paid and lower skilled than those that were outsourced. "When I first looked at the data, I was kind of stunned," says Spence, who now advocates a German-style industrial policy to keep jobs in some high-value sectors at home. Clearly, it's a myth that businesses are simply waiting for more economic and regulatory "certainty" to invest back home.
and
And let's not forget the youth-unemployment crisis. There's now a generation of young workers who are in danger of being permanently sidetracked in the labor markets and disconnected from society. Research shows that the long-term unemployed tend to be depressed, suffer greater health problems and even have shorter life expectancy. The youth unemployment rate is now 24%, compared with the overall rate of 9.1%. If and when these young people return to work, they'll earn 20% less over the next 15 to 20 years than peers who were employed. That increases the wealth divide that is one of the root causes of growing political populism in our country. While Republicans have pushed back against spending on broad government-sponsored work programs and retraining, it would behoove the Administration to keep pushing for a short-term summer-work program to target the most at-risk groups.
I am interested in what PFer's below the age of 30 have to say about the above paragraph, particulary the section I highlighted. What plans do you have to adapt to this, and even turn it to your advantage ?

Rhody... :wink:
 
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  • #2
rhody said:
I am interested in what PFer's below the age of 30 have to say about the above paragraph, particulary the section I highlighted. What plans do you have to adapt to this, and even turn it to your advantage ?

I've got a lot of young adult friends straight out of college who are having to take low income jobs not in the fields they are studying for. Not only does that not help society, but it will seriously delay and hamstring these peoples careers. One friend who graduated in finance is working at a coffee shop.
 
  • #3
Greg Bernhardt said:
One friend who graduated in finance is working at a coffee shop.

Yeah, now everyone's a physicist. :biggrin:
 
  • #4
"Nobel laureate Michael Spence, author of The Next Convergence, has looked at which American companies created jobs at home from 1990 to 2008, a period of extreme globalization. The results are startling. The companies that did business in global markets, including manufacturers, banks, exporters, energy firms and financial services, contributed almost nothing to overall American job growth. The firms that did contribute were those operating mostly in the U.S. market, immune to global competition — health care companies, government agencies, retailers and hotels. Sadly, jobs in these sectors are lower paid and lower skilled than those that were outsourced. "When I first looked at the data, I was kind of stunned," says Spence, who now advocates a German-style industrial policy to keep jobs in some high-value sectors at home. Clearly, it's a myth that businesses are simply waiting for more economic and regulatory "certainty" to invest back home."

My bold
I don't doubt this at all.

We faced similar job challenges in the late 1970's and early 80's in the Rust Belt. Fortunately for us, if we headed West or South the prospects improved. Now it's not so simple.

I know several recent college grads that are going back to school - they hope things will be better in 2 years. I also know several unemployed adults that are back in school.
 
  • #5
WhoWee said:
"Nobel laureate Michael Spence, author of The Next Convergence, has looked at which American companies created jobs at home from 1990 to 2008, a period of extreme globalization. The results are startling. The companies that did business in global markets, including manufacturers, banks, exporters, energy firms and financial services, contributed almost nothing to overall American job growth. The firms that did contribute were those operating mostly in the U.S. market, immune to global competition — health care companies, government agencies, retailers and hotels. Sadly, jobs in these sectors are lower paid and lower skilled than those that were outsourced. "When I first looked at the data, I was kind of stunned," says Spence, who now advocates a German-style industrial policy to keep jobs in some high-value sectors at home. Clearly, it's a myth that businesses are simply waiting for more economic and regulatory "certainty" to invest back home."

My bold
I don't doubt this at all.

We faced similar job challenges in the late 1970's and early 80's in the Rust Belt. Fortunately for us, if we headed West or South the prospects improved. Now it's not so simple.

I know several recent college grads that are going back to school - they hope things will be better in 2 years. I also know several unemployed adults that are back in school.
WhoWee,

I know a couple of young graduate's doing the same thing, going back for masters, and with it a ton of debt that comes along with it. I work with one guy who pays 800 $ a month to pay off 140K worth of student loans (undergrad degree only). He will be 40 before he can even think of buying a home. It just doesn't seem fair. I really feel for some of these people.

Rhody... :grumpy: :mad:
 
  • #6
rhody said:
WhoWee,

I know a couple of young graduate's doing the same thing, going back for masters, and with it a ton of debt that comes along with it. I work with one guy who pays 800 $ a month to pay off 140K worth of student loans (undergrad degree only). He will be 40 before he can even think of buying a home. It just doesn't seem fair. I really feel for some of these people.

Rhody... :grumpy: :mad:

It's probably still a good decision - I think it will take another 2 to 5 years for the economy to regain strength. The graduate degrees will certainly provide greater earnings potential long term. We dug in for $60k for my wife to go back for a Masters - I can assure you it hurt us a good bit at the time.
 
  • #7
My younger sister's kids entered the job market at a good time. They secured pretty good positions before everything went to hell, and are doing OK. The youngest got engineering/type internships in pulp and paper mills every summer in college and has a solid position. His older sister is a very popular HS teacher and has pegged away at extra course-work for a few years until she was awarded her masters this spring. His other siblings are doing quite well for themselves, too though they had to move away to get employment opportunities that matched their talents.

The oldest sister has had to work full-time, leave some of the care of their toddler to her husband, who is a finish carpenter/cabinet-maker, and work long hours studying nights to earn that masters. I am very proud of her.
 
  • #8
We’re Spent By DAVID LEONHARDT
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/sunday-review/17economic.html

Consider that what recovery there has been has been riding on borrowed money (federal deficit), and that cannot continue. Consumer spending is down, and probably will be for the forseeable future. The government cannot continue increasing debt indefinitely without severe consequences when the well runs dry.

Another commentary indicated that 2% growth in the GDP is the new norm. Compare that to a federal budget deficit of ~10% of GDP.

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/glance.htm
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds...mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=us+gdp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget#Deficit

Eliminating the deficit in 2010, the GDP would have dropped 8%!


On the other hand, one cannot deficit-spend oneself toward prosperity. Chronic deficit spending increases indebtedness, and that is the opposite direction from prosperity!
 
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  • #9
My oldest son now 27 could not find work after his B.A.. He worked chopping firewood, doing yard work, cleaning out freezers, etc. His highest standard of living since graduating was the year he taught English at a university in China. He is in the US now and thinking of returning to China.

It is a global village no point in staying in an area that has no jobs. Go west young person far far west.
 
  • #10
Oddly enough this is the most hilarious irony being a physics graduate. In a city with 17% unemployment, I don't know any physics grads without a middle class job (who all graduated within the last 2 years).
 
  • #11
Pengwuino said:
Oddly enough this is the most hilarious irony being a physics graduate. In a city with 17% unemployment, I don't know any physics grads without a middle class job (who all graduated within the last 2 years).

What city?
 
  • #12
Astronuc said:
Another commentary indicated that 2% growth in the GDP is the new norm.

That is with 1% immigration population growth per year. So 1% to support the enlarged population and 1% growth. This is assuming inflation is really zero like they say (no social security COLA). If they are off by 1% in their inflation calculation (as my experimental observations at the grocery store suggest) then that would be zero percent real growth.
 
  • #13
edpell said:
What city?

Fresno, CA
 
  • #14
edpell said:
My oldest son now 27 could not find work after his B.A.. He worked chopping firewood, doing yard work, cleaning out freezers, etc. His highest standard of living since graduating was the year he taught English at a university in China. He is in the US now and thinking of returning to China.

It is a global village no point in staying in an area that has no jobs. Go west young person far far west.

My friend's son has been teaching English in Russia for about 6 years. He said the pay is modest by US standards but he doesn't have many expenses. I believe his housing and transportation are supplemented. He's enjoyed the experience and has traveled a good bit.
 
  • #15
WhoWee said:
My friend's son has been teaching English in Russia for about 6 years. He said the pay is modest by US standards but he doesn't have many expenses. I believe his housing and transportation are supplemented. He's enjoyed the experience and has traveled a good bit.

My son also taught in Russia for half a year. They pay a lot less than China. Or more carefully pay relative to expenses is much less in Russia.
 
  • #16
edpell said:
My son also taught in Russia for half a year. They pay a lot less than China. Or more carefully pay relative to expenses is much less in Russia.

Full disclosure, my friend's son met a Russian girl and...it looks like Christmas in St. Petersburg every few years might be the new norm for my friend.
 
  • #17
Oddly enough this is the most hilarious irony being a physics graduate. In a city with 17% unemployment, I don't know any physics grads without a middle class job (who all graduated within the last 2 years).

That is surprising to me. The phds I know who finished in the last year and a half are all out of work or in part time positions.

Admittedly, this depends on what you count as a middle-class job. I'm bartending, and make enough to be in the top half of households.
 
  • #18
Something to ponder...

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/american-kids-immersed-in-chinese-asian-education.html" [Broken]
“I’m doing what parents have done for many years,” Jim Rogers says. “I’m trying to prepare my children for the future, for the 21st century. I’m trying to prepare them as best I can for the world as I see it.” Rogers believes the future is Asia—he was recently on cable television flogging Chinese commodities. “The money is in the East, and the debtors are in the West. I’d rather be with the creditors than the debtors,” he adds.

It has become a convention of public discourse to regard rapid globalization—of economies and business; of politics and conflict; of fashion, technology, and music—as the great future threat to American prosperity. The burden of meeting that challenge rests explicitly on our kids. If they don’t learn—now—to achieve a comfort level with foreign people, foreign languages, and foreign lands, this argument goes, America’s competitive position in the world will continue to erode, and their future livelihood and that of subsequent generations will be in jeopardy. Rogers is hardly the only person who sees things this way. “In this global economy, the line between domestic and international issues is increasingly blurred, with the world’s economies, societies, and people interconnected as never before,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks in the spring of 2010 at the Asia Society in New York. “I am worried that in this interconnected world, our country risks being disconnected from the contributions of other countries and cultures.”
Interesting perspective, eh ?

Rhody...
 
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  • #19
This is a bit dated, but -

Why has the US economy stalled? (July 29)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14348710
The US government has released its latest set of economic growth figures - which includes a set of revisions going back all the way to 2003.

The figures show that the recession - in 2008 and 2009 - was actually much worse than thought.

. . . .
 
  • #20
Astronuc said:
This is a bit dated, but -

Why has the US economy stalled? (July 29)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14348710

I like their analysis of "chicken and egg" - and the 70% of the economy being consumer driven statement is startling.

My guess is that even if the unemployment rate begins to drop - economic growth will be slower than expected. The reason is tightened credit. In the 2000's credit was loose and spending was wild - the high unemployment is coupled with massive credit default and bankruptcies. Folks who previously had $5,000 to $25,000 credit limits (or even much greater) may now find themselves carrying a pre-paid card or a $300 to $500 credit re-builder card.
 
  • #21
Oh, yeah one more thing... feeling like speedup is haunting you on your job, well, maybe it is...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jeffery-bauerlein-speedup-20110814,0,5795904.story" [Broken]
That's true for some. But in the big picture, the data show a more insidious pattern. After a sharp dip in 2008 and '09, U.S. economic output quickly recovered to near pre-recession levels. The United States did better than most of its fellow G-7 economies. But U.S. workers didn't see the benefit: During the recession far more people here lost their jobs than anywhere else, and far fewer were hired back once the recovery began. And who knows what will happen now that the economy has made another downward turn?
and
Workforce down, output up: No wonder corporate profits are up 22% since 2007, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute. To repeat: Up. Twenty-two. Percent.

I would like to see corroborating studies on this, not just from EPI, anybody know where to find them ?

Rhody... :grumpy:
 
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  • #22
rhody said:
Oh, yeah one more thing... feeling like speedup is haunting you on your job, well, maybe it is...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-jeffery-bauerlein-speedup-20110814,0,5795904.story" [Broken]

and


I would like to see corroborating studies on this, not just from EPI, anybody know where to find them ?

Rhody... :grumpy:

I'd also like to see some support on this. I'm familiar with quite a few manufacturers that run short (full employment) production cycles then shut down until (completed) inventory is depleted. If the inventory sells in a month - they open the factory and make more - if it takes a year to sell out - the factory sits idle until needed again.
 
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  • #23
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-youth-debt-20110814,0,3614698.story" [Broken]
"There's a generation here being formed under the crucible of unemployment, debt and lack of economic chances," said Conway, who was chief of staff at the Labor Department during the George W. Bush administration. "They're just seeking an opportunity to get in the game."
When I was growing up, we could afford to dream, sadly for many young people (20 somethings), this is not the case anymore. The long term issue is, what will happen if this continues for another 5 to 10 years, and what, if anything are you (young people following this thread) prepared to do about it ?

Rhody... :grumpy:
 
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  • #24
  • #25
More signs, reliable ones that indicate that bear markets are looming on our horizion:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/de...-everywhere-2011-08-16?reflink=MW_GoogleNews"
Here’s how the nine major sectors have performed since recent highs:

Financials -25.2%
Industrials -18.3%
Energy -16.3%
Materials -15.4%
Consumer Discretionary -13.7%
Health Care -13.5%
Technology -10.3%
Consumer Staples -8.9%
Utilities -7.6%

For today, multiple death crosses in major indexes and sectors would indicate the potential for danger ahead.

Rhody...
 
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  • #26
One more http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ta...age-in-2012-2011-08-16?reflink=MW_GoogleNews", this time, from the elite International Monetary Fund.
Listen to that hissing: The fuse is rapidly burning, warning us. Wake up before the rage explodes in your face. This firestorm is endangering America’s future. From forces outside, yes. But far more deadly, from deep within our collective psyche. We have lost our moral compass. We are self-destructing.

Crackpot warning? No. This warning comes from the elite International Monetary Fund. A recent IMF report looked at “the causes of the two major U.S. economic crises over the past 100 years, the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2007,” writes Rana Foroohar, an economics editor at Time magazine.

“There are two remarkable similarities in the eras that preceded these crises. Both saw a sharp increase in income inequality and household-debt-to-income ratios.” And in each case, “as the poor and middle-class were squeezed, they tried to cope by borrowing to maintain their standard of living.”

But the rich “got richer, by lending, and looked for more places to invest, bidding up securities that eventually exploded in everyone’s face. In both eras, financial deregulation and loose monetary policies played roles in creating the bubble. But inequality itself — and the political pressure not to reverse it, but to hide it — was a crucial factor in the meltdown. The shrinking middle isn’t a symptom of the downturn. It’s the source of it.” Today the consequences of the meltdown still haunt us — there’s more to come.

Rhody...
 
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  • #27
Just watched a video about South Korea. The student interviewed said she attends school from 7am to 11pm. I have consulted at TSMC in Taiwan they work from 9am to 11pm. Global competition means we will have to work more for less.
 
  • #28
edpell said:
Just watched a video about South Korea. The student interviewed said she attends school from 7am to 11pm. I have consulted at TSMC in Taiwan they work from 9am to 11pm. Global competition means we will have to work more for less.

Hmmm - maybe sending union leaders there IS a good idea?:uhh:
 
  • #29
From the quotation in the OP:
If and when these young people return to work, they'll earn 20% less over the next 15 to 20 years than peers who were employed.

I'm not sure what information this reporter was trying to convey when adding this sentence in during a discussion about youth unemployment. Those unemployed are unemployed partly because they're the most undesirable to the labour market (on average) in apposition to their competition. Of course their income expectation is going to be significantly less.
 
  • #30
From the Guardian UK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/14/larry-elliott-global-financial-system" [Broken]
A crisis that has been four decades in the making will not be solved overnight. It will be difficult to recast the global monetary system to ensure that the next few years see gradual recovery rather than depression. Wall Street and the City will resist all attempts at clipping their wings. There is strong ideological resistance to the policies that make decent wages in a full employment economy feasible: capital controls, allowing strong trade unions, wage subsidies, and protectionism.

But this is a fork in the road. History suggests there is no iron law of progress and there have been periods when things have got worse not better. Together, the global imbalances, the manic-depressive behaviour of stock markets, the venality of the financial sector, the growing gulf between rich and poor, the high levels of unemployment, the naked consumerism and the riots are telling us something.

This is a system in deep trouble and it is waiting to blow.

Rhody...
 
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  • #31
rhody said:
I am no economics expert but I think this http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2076568-4,00.html" [Broken] is fair IMO, however, you decide...

Back to the OP with regards repatriation of capital and low wages. In order for a business to succeed in the long term a comprehensive plan must be developed. If labor agreements guarantee too much - it might force the business to make cuts in other areas or reduce the number of jobs. This is one of the reasons salespeople are typically commissioned - they are typically paid more than the average hourly worker - but it's performance based.

Using this model and including a base pay - perhaps using minimum wage as a baseline - labor negotiators would be wise to request a percentage of earnings to both increase the number of people employed and maximize the long term earnings potential.

IMO - a tax policy that favored companies who repatriate capital for start-ups and structure a base plus profit participation compensation plan would be highly attractive to business. However, if the Government tries to dictate the type of manufacturing or specify a specific group of people to hire, or require union participation, or over-regulate with EPA (etc.) - it would not be a widely successful incentive. Again IMO - they best hope in the future of above average workers wages in the US is pay for performance.
 
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  • #32
Also IMO - I don't think President Obama understands that cutting the "payroll taxes" for workers doesn't help create jobs. While the $10 per week boost in the paycheck may help offset $4.00/gal gasoline - it (MIGHT save a job or 2 but) doesn't create new jobs.

If you want to create jobs with a payroll tax reduction - lower the matching tax rate that businesses pay and raise the workers contribution to offset the revenue loss. Unfortunately, that would be difficult for him to explain.

The minimum wage increases have also hurt small and micro businesses that were struggling before the recession. Everyone seems to forget all of the existing businesses you see in the strip plazas and malls are still paying pre-recession rents based on pre-recession market prices. An example - a free standing building with a $1Million value is typically priced at 10% or $100,000 per year - if the value fell to $500,000 during the recession - the lease is still priced at $100K and has probably increased by a few percentage points per year - maybe to $110,000 now. If the small business owner pledged their house on a 10 year lease - a boost in minimum wage coupled with lower revenues (and higher utilities) means less employees (at minimum). Employees/labor and marketing are usually the first variable costs to be cut.

btw- Yes, some are on base plus percentage leases in the malls - many of those have annual increases and minimum volume requirements as well.
 
  • #33
ParticleGrl said:
Admittedly, this depends on what you count as a middle-class job. I'm bartending, and make enough to be in the top half of households.
One of my nieces moved to California about 20 years ago, established residency, and worked as a bartender until she had gotten enough of a nest-egg to go to school mostly full-time and keep bartending on weekends. She got by nicely on tips, though that was probably a function of her attractiveness as much as her skill as a bartender. She was featured in the SuperBowl kick-off of Chevrolet's "Real Cars for Real People" ad campaign and kept getting royalty checks as long as GM ran the ads she was featured in. She now has a very comfortable job as a dental hygienist, though her husband (an electrician in the manufacturing field) has struggled to stay employed as more and more manufacturing jobs are moved off-shore. It's hard to out-source a job like hers, and very easy to out-source her husband's job.
 
  • #34
WhoWee said:
Also IMO - I don't think President Obama understands that cutting the "payroll taxes" for workers doesn't help create jobs. While the $10 per week boost in the paycheck may help offset $4.00/gal gasoline - it (MIGHT save a job or 2 but) doesn't create new jobs.

The goal is to stimulate consumer spending - the heart of any recovery. Increased consumer spending in turn creates new jobs. And that ten dollars per week almost all goes to consumer spending.

The price of fuel is what it is no matter what the payroll taxes may be. If that ten dollars goes to fuel, then another ten is being spent elsewhere that wouldn't be; that would go to fuel instead.
 
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  • #35
Ivan Seeking said:
The goal is to stimulate consumer spending - the heart of any recovery. Increased consumer spending in turns creates new jobs. And that ten dollars per week almost all goes to consumer spending.
That's something that goes all but un-noticed in the political wrangling. Consumer spending is by far the biggest driver of our economy. Giving tax-breaks for specific industries, or bailing out parts of our national economy have nowhere near the immediacy or the strength of the effect that putting extra dollars in consumers' pockets can have. Driving wealth toward the bottom tier of wage-earners would result in spending NOW because the least affluent of us tend to spend all their disposable income, and they tend to stimulate their local economies by doing so. The "Main Street" effects of local spending have been blunted somewhat by the invasion of the big-box stores into rural and suburban America, but consumer spending is still a powerful influence on local economies.
 
<h2>1. What are the five destructive myths about the U.S. economic recovery?</h2><p>The five destructive myths about the U.S. economic recovery are: the myth of job growth, the myth of rising wages, the myth of a strong stock market, the myth of a shrinking middle class, and the myth of a thriving economy.</p><h2>2. How do these myths affect our perception of the U.S. economy?</h2><p>These myths create a false sense of economic growth and stability, leading people to believe that the economy is doing well when in reality, it may not be. This can lead to complacency and a lack of urgency to address underlying issues that may be hindering true economic recovery.</p><h2>3. What evidence supports the claim that these myths are not true?</h2><p>For each myth, there is evidence that contradicts the popular narrative. For example, while there may be job growth, many of these jobs are low-paying and do not provide a living wage. Additionally, while the stock market may be performing well, this does not necessarily reflect the financial well-being of the majority of Americans.</p><h2>4. How can we combat these destructive myths and promote a more accurate understanding of the U.S. economy?</h2><p>It is important for individuals to educate themselves on the current state of the economy and not rely solely on media headlines or political rhetoric. Seeking out diverse sources of information and critically evaluating data can help combat these myths. Additionally, advocating for policies that address the underlying issues of economic inequality and promoting transparency in economic reporting can also help promote a more accurate understanding of the economy.</p><h2>5. What are the potential consequences of continuing to believe these myths?</h2><p>If we continue to believe these myths, we may overlook important economic issues that need to be addressed. This can lead to a widening wealth gap, a struggling middle class, and a weaker overall economy. It is important to have a realistic understanding of the economy in order to make informed decisions and promote sustainable economic growth.</p>

1. What are the five destructive myths about the U.S. economic recovery?

The five destructive myths about the U.S. economic recovery are: the myth of job growth, the myth of rising wages, the myth of a strong stock market, the myth of a shrinking middle class, and the myth of a thriving economy.

2. How do these myths affect our perception of the U.S. economy?

These myths create a false sense of economic growth and stability, leading people to believe that the economy is doing well when in reality, it may not be. This can lead to complacency and a lack of urgency to address underlying issues that may be hindering true economic recovery.

3. What evidence supports the claim that these myths are not true?

For each myth, there is evidence that contradicts the popular narrative. For example, while there may be job growth, many of these jobs are low-paying and do not provide a living wage. Additionally, while the stock market may be performing well, this does not necessarily reflect the financial well-being of the majority of Americans.

4. How can we combat these destructive myths and promote a more accurate understanding of the U.S. economy?

It is important for individuals to educate themselves on the current state of the economy and not rely solely on media headlines or political rhetoric. Seeking out diverse sources of information and critically evaluating data can help combat these myths. Additionally, advocating for policies that address the underlying issues of economic inequality and promoting transparency in economic reporting can also help promote a more accurate understanding of the economy.

5. What are the potential consequences of continuing to believe these myths?

If we continue to believe these myths, we may overlook important economic issues that need to be addressed. This can lead to a widening wealth gap, a struggling middle class, and a weaker overall economy. It is important to have a realistic understanding of the economy in order to make informed decisions and promote sustainable economic growth.

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