This op-ed by Daniel Erspamer of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy was published by Washington Examiner on 4/28/2025.
If America is going to have a golden age, then we have to get everyone who is able to work off the sidelines. There are 7.6 million open jobs in this country, but at the same time, there is a troubling trend of men who are prime working age dropping out of the labor force.
President Donald Trump’s trade policy is meant to bring back manufacturing jobs for these out-of-work men, but recent history has shown that even if the jobs exist, people aren’t taking them. The problem isn’t the availability of jobs. It is that too many people have been disconnected from work for too long and are dependent on the social safety net.