Editor:
By all measures, the United States was hit hard by the COVID pandemic. It was real. Unemployment, scarcity of essential parts and consumer products, medical overwhelm, reduced education for children, anxiety, fear, distrust of masks and shots, and polarized actions. All of these factors collectively caused economic and societal pain and anguish. All in all, a difficult time for an incoming administration to seek remedies on many fronts.
By all measures, over four years, the current administration did an excellent job addressing these ails. Regrettably the news seemed to focus on decisions in Afghanistan that quickly became a metaphor for four entire years of progress. Today, employment is at a 50-year low, the stock market is at an all-time high, the economy is making a soft landing from the COVID crisis, average wages are 5 percent higher than before the pandemic. Much of the material needed to rebuild bridges, fix roads, upgrade wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure projects is now produced in this country. A deliberate move by the administration to move manufacturing jobs back home, 16 million new jobs were added during the last four years. But the word inflation is what made the headlines. Indeed, we love to focus on the downsides of life. Don’t we?
The next administration appears to approach government as the tycoon’s business, one that generates lots of profit for loyal billionaires. Still, a well-run business provides goods and services. I only hope that we will be the customers to benefit from “let’s make a deal.”
These two phrases seem to apropos: “Who befits?” and “follow the money.”
We shall see what happens. I try not to be anxious. Our history is full of admirations that failed as we feared the worst. Still, we survive. How will future generations historians review these times?
Stephen Avis, Ferndale
This article appears in ‘A Big Heart’.