The US, it sometimes seen, is a slurry of superlatives. Something is all-good or all-bad. Well, that's America's problem with the English language. Because, economically, what is happening is neither all-bad nor all-good. It's better than most times but likely to get a bit worse. Whyzzat? Because unemployment in American typically looks like this over the long-run: So, as anybody can see from the above, we've had not a bad run most of the time. (2008 to 2014 being an acute exception!) And we can likely expect that to continue? Probably not if the past is predictive of the future (as shown above). That unemployment low-point that you see up-above is one that typically shoots right back up. Whyzzat? Because, in any period of better-than-usual market-economy expansion, we consumers "go wild". (I can't think of a less appropriate phrase for what is happening.) Why can't that 3.8% become just a straight horizontal line? Or just a wavy line without the spikes? Good question! Because, if you look at the detail in that above info-graphic you can see that our unemployment-rate NEVER FLATLINES. Which stimulates the question - Whyzzat? How is it that we can't arrange unemployment to a variation +/-0.5% around an average rate of, say, 4%. Better yet, how do we do accomplish that fact? And, WOW!, do I have an answer that will surprise you! It goes like this: Why not institute a Minimum Revenue sustained by the US government at the level of $25/30K per year*. (Say, for a family of four but more or less than that amount depending upon the family-unit; that is, a family of 1 if single, 2 if married, and plus if children below the age of adulthood set at say 18 years of age are counted.) What then might happen? We'll wipe-out the Poverty Threshold since all families will have a Minimum Income above that present revenue-amount. And if that happens, they will keep spending their Minimum Income to sustain themselves or their family thus helping avoid the traditional unemployment upswing (as seen in the above graphic)! Which, I suggest, will arrange for far less up-and-down spiking of the unemployment rate. Next important question: Oh yeah, smarty? So, where do we get the money from which to do that? By putting taxation up once again to a confiscatory amount beyond a revenue of, say, 10 megabucks a year (along with a 75% tax on all unearned inherited Wealth above $5M? And tightening up on tax-leaks like ) Meaning this: We have made our greatest mistakes in not legislating the minimum/maximum income of both the lower and higher ranges ... *If the Minimum Wage were doubled, it would be around $25K a year.
