Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill – Michael Roberts
“…the gap between what Americans earn and how much they need to bring in to achieve a decent standard of living is growing. According to the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), for the bottom 60% of US households by incomes, a ‘minimal quality of life’ is out of reach. The US official unemployment rate of 4.2% greatly understates the level of economic distress. LISEP factor-in workers who are stuck in poverty-wage jobs and people who are unable to find full-time employment, and that takes the US jobless rate to over 24%. Those lowest earning American households, which in 2023 earned an average of just $38,000 per year, would need to make $67,000 to afford what a household needs to have a decent life. Housing and health care costs have surged, while the amount of savings required to attend an in-state, public university has soared 122%. Meanwhile, median earnings for the bottom 60% of income earners have fallen 4% between 2001 and 2023.
“And now they are to receive Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill.”