What You Need To Know About The Economy This Election

     We're revving up to another election period and the country is on the verge of what I consider a major economic disaster. Two days ago I listened to Secretary of State John Kerry's speech on foreign policy. His hope is to open our doors for more Syrian refugees letting them know that they are welcome in our country. Over all I think it's a great concept. I am very liberal and as a student of anthropology I would like to eliminate the hard times for others; however, now is not the time for America to open it's door due to the poor state of our economy.
     Six years after graduating from a state university and I am still hunting for a job to pay me a living wage. My parents are creeping up on 70 and my brother and I are still forced to live at home. Why? Because I am trying to convince companies to pay me the same wage they would pay someone 20 years my senior. This is due to the fact that there are more jobs in demand than are being supplied. Companies are willing to pay workers higher wages when there is less of a supply in the market. Most workers in our country are either unemployed or underemployed.
     In Obama's last state of the union address he spoke of his acheivements. One he proudly totes is that unemployment is down to 5%. As Bernie Sanders pointed out that does not include those Americans who have given up on finding a job. One of the biggest problems in fixing the economy under Obama's reign was the failure of his economic stimulus package and before you start telling me of it's successes hear me out.
     The economic stimulus package was divided into three parts. The first part of the funding went to tax cuts, the second extended unemployment benefits, and the third job creation. The tax cut was supposed to increase consumer spending across the country, but without receiving a check the way that the people have under other administration's; most people did not realize they were getting less tax withholding and so the result was they did not spend.
     Extended unemployment was a great way to use the money. I have no problem with that part of the bill. The third portion, job growth, was focused on creating jobs to stimulate the economy. I believe this was ultimately a failure, because most of the jobs created would not pay a living wage. It was a short sighted plan to boost the economy, because it focused only on re-circulating the money currently in our economy. What we need is a package designed to help bring money into the country to boost our economy long term. If we had put that into motion along with extended unemployment benefits we might be better off today. More money in the economy might create jobs slower, but it will help to create higher paying jobs as well as increase tax revenue. If we are taxed at a particular rate the more money each individual makes the more money we have to feed into government programs.
     In my eyes if we had looked to more long term solutions we could be in an economic boom instead of slowly crawling out of a recession. I support Bernie Sanders because he desires real change. He understands that we cannot over burden an already struggling country. He plans to tax the wealthy at a higher rate in order to provide more income into government programs and hopes to end or greatly decrease outsourcing. We are a consumer culture in America, which is why we are in a state of decline. We need to find ways to bring new money into the country. How do you suggest we fix these problems in 2016?