The American worker is not merely a consumer
The real measure of prosperity is whether honest work gives Americans the opportunity to build stable lives and secure futures for their families.
The latest employment report arrived just before Labor Day with encouraging news. Employers added 162,000 jobs in August, manufacturing and construction gained workers, and unemployment remained at 4.1 percent.
But beneath those reassuring numbers lies the question that should define this Labor Day: What kind of life can those jobs support?
Americans can still find work. Too many struggle to turn that work into savings, a home and a secure future for their families.
There are no simple explanations or easy solutions. Housing, wages, inflation and borrowing costs all shape what work can provide. But the standard should remain clear: a healthy economy must give people who work hard and act responsibly a reasonable opportunity to build a stable life.
Economic growth, low unemployment and affordable goods all matter. But they do not tell us everything about the condition of the American worker.
A better measure is whether wages are rising faster than the cost of living. Unleash Prosperity estimates that real wages have risen 1.2 percent during President Trump’s second term—a modest but welcome reversal after years in which inflation consumed much of what workers earned.
That progress should continue. A healthy economy does more than create jobs or fill stores with inexpensive goods. It rewards work with rising purchasing power and gives people a reasonable chance to save, own property, raise a family and build something they can pass down.
That is what Labor Day should remind us.
The American worker is not merely a consumer at the end of a supply chain. He is a producer, a citizen, a parent and a steward of the country his work sustains.
The dignity of work is not found only in the labor performed. It is found in the life that labor makes possible.