The current administration came into power by vocalizing the pain that many middle-class Americans are feeling as they lose manufacturing jobs overseas, see real declines in wages, and die from opioid abuse. In 2016, the voters felt that life was better in an earlier era and somehow the Republican candidate could restore an idealized vision of the US.
A number of my students weren’t able to vote four years ago. So as we near election, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see how has the US is faring compared to 2016 when the President was elected using measures mostly provided by the US government. As a management consultant, we had a dashboard of metrics against which we would annually evaluate ourselves. In that spirit, here’s a potential dashboard for the Executive Branch using social, economic and international metrics.
Metric | Description | 2016 | 2020 | Info Source |
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | Value of goods and services produced. Measures size of economy. | US $37.1 trillion (first 2 quarters) | US $ 41.1 trillion (first 2 quarters) | Bureau of Economic Analysis, Department of Commerce 3rd quarter data released on Oct 29 |
Unemployment | Number of civilians in labor force that are not employed. | 7.9 million (Sept 2016) | 12.5 million (Sept 2020) | |
US Debt | Amount the US Govt owes to other countries and future generations | US $19.8 trillion (as of Oct 20, 2016) | US $27.1 trillion (as of Oct 20, 2020) | |
Mortality | Excess Deaths compared to average in previous years | 0 | 299,028 | |
Average Hourly Earnings | Hourly Earnings for employees on private nonfarm payrolls | $25.77 | $29.47 | |
US Image | % of people in other countries who approve of the US | ~60% | ~40% | |
US Ranking in the World | Global perceptions of country standing based on 65 attributes | #4 | #7 | |
Using these metrics, a performance evaluation could be as follows: The positives are that overall the economy has grown over the past four years during the tenure of the President, but the relative stagnation of average earnings, implies that most of the economic gain has gone to richer members of society. The improvements are that Federal mis-management of the pandemic has led to significant number of deaths, high unemployment and an increased burden of debt, i.e. we owe money to other countries and to future generations. The ultimate impact has been a fall in our standing in the world as viewed by our allies.
Metrics not included here are ones describing environmental degradation, racial injustice, rise in hate crimes, humanitarian wrongs, e.g. the number of children separated from their parents at the border. You could come up with your own measures as well.
The President came into power riding on a sentiment that the country was in an inferior state compared to a past time, and he could make the country better. Based on the metrics above, under his tenure the country is worse off. Another four years, and his policies and leadership could lead to the country falling even further.
Perhaps it’s time for the Democrats to reclaim the slogan, let’s “Make America Great Again”.
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