The American Academy of Arts & Sciences created the index, which aims to evaluate household performance and outlook by going beyond conventional economic measures. Eleven metrics, ranging from county-level data to education, income growth, health, and civic engagement, are included in the new dashboard.
The nation’s well-being index, which is derived in part from Census Bureau surveys and the National Centre for Health Statistics, gave the country a score of 4.91 on a scale of 10, indicating low levels of economic possibilities and household financial resilience in 2021.
The index’s use of data from 2005 to 2021 means that it is unable to account for the recent increase in consumer prices or the effects of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate rises in an effort to combat inflation. However, it could help clarify the increasing discrepancy between the negative perceptions that Americans have been holding about the economy and metrics like the gross domestic product that are demonstrating robust growth.
Katherine Cramer, co-chair of the academy’s Commission on Reimagining our Economy, stated at a presentation last month, “We really wanted to have a pretty grounded sense of what’s going on for so-called ordinary people in economic life, and one of the things we heard time and time again was that people see the economy as a burden.” “They view it as a set of challenges rather than a system that works for them.”
In a report, the commission—co-chaired by Ann Fudge, the former CEO of Young & Rubicam, and Nicholas Lemann, a former dean of Columbia School of Journalism—offered suggestions for addressing economic disparity.
The study recommended, among other things, giving Black World War II veterans and their offspring access to more modern loan and training programmes as well as housing and educational advantages that were denied to them under the 1944 GI Bill.
To assist address the labour shortages in manufacturing, healthcare, and other industries, there is also a proposal to allow states, tribes, or municipalities to sponsor immigrants through community partnership visas. According to the paper titled “Advancing a People-First Economy,” immigrants spend an estimated $1.3 trillion yearly and make $492 billion in local, state, and federal tax contributions.