Restricting immigration halts a key source of labor for essential sectors like agriculture and construction. This drives up consumer costs and could cut GDP by 4-7%, creating a direct path to higher inflation and slower economic growth.
International student tuition is one of America's most profitable exports, with gross margins around 95% that fund university research. Anti-immigrant sentiment discourages applications, kneecapping this lucrative economic engine.
Instead of incremental shifts around a moderate center (e.g., between 4 and 6 on a dial), US policy now swings violently between ideological extremes (3 and 9). This dynamic makes stable, consensus-based governance on issues like immigration nearly impossible.
The official poverty line is calculated as 3x the cost of food, a metric from the 1960s when food was a third of a household budget. Today, food is only 13% of spending while housing and healthcare have soared, making the official metric a poor reflection of modern economic hardship.
Past economic models, like the 1963 poverty line calculation, assumed childcare was a minimal or non-financial cost covered by family. Its evolution into a major household expenditure, comparable to housing, means these frameworks no longer reflect the financial reality of raising a family.
Widespread cancellation of medical debt, while well-intentioned, may remove consumer pressure on providers. If patients don't need to shop around or question prices because they anticipate forgiveness, it eliminates a key market force needed to control escalating costs.
The 20th-century broadcast economy monetized aspiration and sex appeal to sell products. Today's algorithm-driven digital economy has discovered that rage is a far more potent and profitable tool for capturing attention and maximizing engagement.
Data analysis of 105,000 headlines reveals a direct financial incentive for negativity in media. Each negative word added to an average-length headline increases its click-through rate by more than two percentage points, creating an economic model that systematically rewards outrage.