The news articles titled “The US has a Jobs Crisis: Here’s How to Fix it” and “Searching for an Answer behind African Americans High Unemployment Rate” provide economic viewpoints on the problem of unemployment in the United States and why it is yet to be effectively addressed despite concerted efforts to create employment opportunities.
The two topics that can be applied to these articles include positive/ normative economics and the inflation-unemployment relationship. Specifically, these articles have used positive economics to demonstrate the relationship between various economic components and unemployment in the US. Additionally, the concept of normative economics has been used in the articles not only to project value judgments on the issue but also to describe what “ought” to be done to address the problem.
In the first news article titled “The US has a Jobs Crisis: Here’s How to Fix it,” the authors use the latest statistics to demonstrate the problem of unemployment in the US, before relying on the opinions and perspectives of various economists to analyze the problem and recommend solutions.
For example, the authors rely on facts and cause-and-effect relationships entrenched in positive economics to not only demonstrate how issues such as global warming and poor immigration policies are contributing to the problem of unemployment, but also explain how innovation, manufacturing, and creativity can reduce unemployment.
Additionally, the panelists contributing to the article use facts to describe a relationship between the recent economic downturn and unemployment. In the second article titled “Searching for an Answer behind African Americans High Unemployment Rate,” the author uses facts and personal opinions to discuss the unemployment problem.
For example, although statistics are used to locate the problem of unemployment among African Americans, the author goes on to use normative economics (value judgments) to discuss the dynamics that discourage this group of the population from accessing active employment.
These articles have employed the two economics concepts in discussing the problem of unemployment in the US; however, it can be argued that the concepts have been used to exaggerate the problem since the authors have failed to provide a balanced approach to the issue.
For example, when the first article mentions that inflation and global recession lead to unemployment, it fails to provide the needed rationale to support the argument and only assumes that such a relationship exists. Similarly, when the second article discusses the unemployment rate of African Americans, it fails to nest the discussion on the socioeconomic dynamics that have come into play to discourage or disorient African American workers.
Overall, the arguments propagated by these articles make sense in describing the problem of unemployment in the US; however, they are not effective in analyzing the problem to identify the root causes and ensure the proposed solutions will work. In the first article, for instance, elements of positive economics have been used to establish the relationship between poor immigration policies and rising unemployment.
But while it is true that such a relationship exists in economics, the authors fail to illuminate the relationship and explain to the audience why poor immigration policies or high inflation rates worsen the unemployment problem in the US. Similarly, although the second article uses facts and value judgments to describe the problem of unemployment among African Americans, it nevertheless fails to illuminate the dynamics in more detail to heighten or reinforce understanding.