“…We need to take advantage of this changing mood to push for stronger labor laws, both at the national level and the state levels. And we should support international movements to create unions in other economies.”
— President Obama
Newer technologies hold incredible opportunities for economic and social growth, but we must demand a certain level of accountability and trust from those that utilize them with and for our communities. In his speech, President Obama discussed the historical erosion of trust that occurs in democratic institutions when capitalism and growth are centered around the few versus the many:
“…More and more people came to believe that their government wasn’t looking out for them, and that politics was a zero-sum game. And as anger and frustration rose, so did anti-immigrant sentiment, so did right wing populism, so did a strident nationalism that has all too often led to the promotion by politicians of anti-democratic ideas and has often led to international conflict.”
— President Obama
As the global economy expands and becomes more complex, it is critical that we demand fairer and more transparent policies around economic growth and technological development. There are many ways to do this, as President Obama pointed out, namely government accountability:
“…At the macro level, that starts with us making sure our governments, those in charge of managing the economy, support fiscal and monetary policies that encourage full employment. For decades, economists told us we couldn’t go below a natural unemployment rate — they estimated it might be around 5%-5.5% — without sparking inflation. But as it turns out, there’s nothing natural about a steady unemployment rate that leaves millions of people out of work, and that is twice as high, in some cases, in African-American communities or in rural communities.”