Mr. Vance:
Yesterday, you boasted to Jack Posobiec that the Trump administration is “trying to undo 40 years of bad policy, of globalization, of shipping American jobs overseas.”
How curious. Please tell me which of the following results of the “bad policy” and globalization over the past 40 years do you wish to undo?
Unemployment rate
1985: 7.2% 2025: 4.3%
Total nonfarm employment
1985: 97.53M 2025: 158.43M
Real avg. hourly wage of nonsupervisory workers (2025$)*
1985: $22.10 2025: $31.34
Real per-capita GDP (2017$)
1985: $35,793 2025: $70,020
Real median household income (2025$)
1985: $63,090 2025: $ 87,460
Real median household wealth (2022$)**
1983: $87,859 2022: $192,700
Percentage of manufacturing workers laid-off
1985: 19% 2025: 11%
Median sq. footage of newly built home
1985: 1,620 sq. ft. 2025: 2,142 sq. ft.
Life expectancy at birth
1985: 74.6 years 2025: 79.4 years
Perhaps you have other evidence that justifies your insinuation that, over the past four decades, Americans have been – to use a favorite expression of your boss – “ripped off.” If so, please do share it with the American public. A man with your intellect surely doesn’t want to make bold claims that are unsubstantiated by the facts.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
* 1985 dollars converted into 2025 dollars using the personal-consumption-expenditure index.
** Calculations performed by economist Jeremy Horpedahl and shared with Bryan and Caplan and me, to appear in Bryan’s and my forthcoming book, Blockade (Cato Institute, 2027).
