Coronavirus reveals fundamental truths

In his recent State of the Union address, President Trump boasted how the US economy is experiencing unprecedented prosperity and unemployment rate is at a all-time low. But is there any substance to such bold statement?

I used to teach statistics to college students. Typically, my first lesson in a statistics course is to show students how easy it is to lie with statistics. In the recent economic report, it is important to note that we must look at the quality of the jobs in addition to the quantity. The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program reported that 44% of U.S. workers between the ages of 18 and 64 are in jobs that pay median annual wages of $18,000. In other words, in this “prosperous” economy, almost half of the U.S. workers are in the ranks of the working poor. What good is it to have employment but the employment does not offer you a living wage?

Pearl Buck, a Nobel prize winner in literature who did missionary work in China, once remarked that “our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.” Similarly, in Catholic Social Teaching, it is commonly understood that a basic moral test of our society is how well the most vulnerable members of society are faring. As a statistician, I know that…