“The economy is roaring, and immigration is a key reason,” read a Feb. 28 front-page headline. And these two clauses offer a clue to President Biden’s low approval ratings.
Yet, as I recall Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) stating in the Democratic presidential primary debates a few years ago, “GDP doesn’t speak to my constituents.” Mr. Booker was pushing back against President Donald Trump’s obsession with growth.
Most people couldn’t care less about GDP. For people in the MAGA crowd, especially, the things they thought were great are going the way of the dodo. They’re being lost to all that “growth.”
It’s not just the MAGA crowd worried about where we’re losing. I’m an independent, and I am appalled by all the surges in noise, traffic, housing developments, red lights and congestion in general. I love the mix of people from all countries, but the “extraordinary recent growth” scares me. Not the individuals, mind you; it’s the sheer number thereof.
The United States can hardly handle “$7 trillion more” than the current, bloated economy that is threatening our countryside, our way of life and even the climate we so fundamentally depend on. What we need is a conservation ethic, some ecological economics and a political cure for the obsession with GDP growth.
Brian Czech, Arlington
