Economic challenge awaits new president

One issue drove Donald Trump to victory. To paraphrase Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan in 1992, “it was the economy, stupid.”

The difference between the 1992 campaign and the 2016 campaign was that the sluggish 1992 economy was caused by disruptions in the business cycle, a painful but temporary problem, while the sluggish 2016 economy was caused by technological improvements and globalization. The mix of automation, computer technology and foreign competition is destroying American jobs. The economic security of a generation ago is gone.

Because of automation and computer technology, assembly line workers now push buttons instead of bang steel. Lawyers download legal briefs from websites. ATM machines do the work of bank tellers. And voicemail machines take the place of secretaries. Membership in the United Auto Workers has dropped 70 percent since 1980.

Because of cheap labor, most of our textiles, apparel and telephones are produced overseas. Foreign competition will become even more formidable as the technological revolution spreads globally.

Democrats and Republicans are equally afraid to confront the problem of stagnating economic opportunity because they don’t know what to do. They know about supply-and-demand; they know about tax cuts and deficit spending; but they don’t know about restructuring people’s aspirations.

Perhaps President-elect Trump has a workable plan to create sustainable economic opportunity, with good paying jobs and raises. People want that. That’s why he won. Mark Shea Brooklyn