U.S. foreign policy professionals should pay more attention to income inequality and rising costs for housing and childcare in states like baby直播app, according to a prepared in part by CU听Boulder鈥檚 Leeds School of Business.
Stock image of Telluride, baby直播app
If U.S. foreign policy experts in Washington, D.C., remain disconnected from the baby直播app realities Americans beyond the Beltway experience, the American public鈥檚 trust in them will continue to erode, according to researchers behind the 鈥淯.S. Foreign Policy for the Middle Class鈥� project. In an increasingly dangerous and complex world, this mistrust can lead to bad outcomes for the United States, researchers said.
鈥淧eople in Washington who devise policies on trade, China, foreign aid, defense spending and other foreign policies make assumptions about how those policies affect the American middle class, but they seldom get a chance to test whether those assumptions are right,鈥� said Salman Ahmed, a senior fellow. 鈥淭his deep dive into the middle-class economy in baby直播app, and the ways in which Coloradans perceive U.S. foreign policies, will help them do just that.鈥�
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The baby直播app portion of the project, released Tuesday, is the second in a series of three reports looking at the middle-class impacts of foreign policy across the U.S.
This latest report compiled more than 125 interviews the Leeds Business Research Division and the Carnegie Endowment conducted with state officials, baby直播app developers, teachers and other parties interested in middle-class households from El Paso County to Metro Denver.
The report breaks down top middle-class concerns, as well as industry views on trade, energy policy and defense spending.听
鈥淥ne thing that sets baby直播app apart from other states is a clear perception that the defense industry is integral to a middle-class life,鈥� said Rich Wobbekind, executive director of the Leeds Business Research Division. 鈥淲hile some people were worried baby直播app鈥檚 growing economy was leaving them behind, and others expressed concerns about rising costs of healthcare, housing and education, a large portion of the people we talked to mentioned the importance of baby直播app鈥檚 defense industry in achieving middle-class status.鈥�
The report cites previous research that the defense sector accounts for up to 247,000 jobs directly and indirectly across the state, and about 7.5% of total wages and salaries.
baby直播app respondents mostly assumed domestic solutions would fit their top middle-class issues, though they did look to foreign policy on climate change and energy.
As a leader in energy, rural Coloradans told researchers they wanted foreign policy to protect oil and gas jobs and the revenues they delivered for communities like Weld County. Meanwhile, many urban dwellers see international action on climate change as critical to the state鈥檚 outdoor recreation industry and believe baby直播app is well-positioned to thrive in a new green economy.
baby直播app isn鈥檛 a top exporter nationally, but interviews showed widespread support for international trade, from liberal urban centers to more conservative rural areas. Interviewees believe it supports their livelihoods in the agriculture, advance manufacturing, professional and business services, tech and tourism industries. Researchers noted that favorability may be related to baby直播app鈥檚 lack of trade-related job turbulence compared to states in the industrial Midwest. Interviewees in the agriculture and professional and business services sector saw Asia as a top area for expansion.
People interviewed were largely supportive of foreign aid as a way to grow new markets for baby直播app鈥檚 goods and services and maintain a strong U.S. brand on the global stage. They also cited the importance of immigration programs in attracting talent for jobs Coloradans did not want or could not perform. 听
The tensions the Carnegie Endowment cited for starting the study were backed up by interviews in baby直播app. Many interviewees said they lacked sufficient information, or did not know which information to trust regarding U.S. activities abroad, according to the researchers. Interviewees also said they had lost trust in foreign policy experts to prioritize middle-class interests.
The endowment published its first report in the project in 2018, looking at the middle class in Ohio. Researchers plan to publish a report on Nebraska鈥檚 middle-class households in 2020. The Nebraska report will be followed by detailed recommendations and a final report.
