Nobody would have ever thought it was possible three years ago. A record number of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 are now working. In the eight years before I took office, over 300,000 working-age people left the workforce. In just three years in my administration, 3.5 million people have joined the workforce.
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Ten million people have been lifted off welfare in less than three years. Celebrating the dignity of work is a fundamental pillar of our agenda. This is a blue-collar boom. Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by plus-47 percent — three times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent.
Real median household income is at the highest level ever recorded. The American Dream is back — bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. No one is benefitting more than America’s middle class. We have created 1.2 million manufacturing and construction jobs — a number also unthinkable. After losing 60,000 factories under the previous two administrations — hard to believe when you hear “60,000 factories” — America has now gained, in a very short period of time, 12,000 new factories under my administration.
And the number is going up rapidly. We’ll be beating the 60,000 number that we lost, except these will be bigger, newer, and the latest. Years of economic stagnation have given way to a roaring geyser of opportunity. U.S. stock markets have soared by more than 50 percent since my election, adding more than $19 trillion to household wealth, and boosting 401(k)s, pensions, and college savings accounts for millions of hardworking families.
And these great numbers are many things, and it’s despite the fact that the Fed has raised rates too fast and lowered them too slowly. And even now, as the United States is by far the strongest economic power in the world, it’s not even close. It was going to be close, but a lot of good things happened to us, and some not-so-good things happened to certain other places.
They’re forced to compete, and we compete with nations that are getting negative rates — something very new — meaning, they get paid to borrow money. Something that I could get used to very quickly. Love that. Got to pay back your loan? Oh, how much am I getting? Nevertheless, we still have the best numbers that we’ve had in so many different areas.
It’s a conservative approach, and we have a tremendous upside potential, when all of the trade deals and the massive deregulation starts kicking in — which will be during this year, especially toward the end of the year. Those trade deals are starting to kick in already. The regulations are kicking in right now.
And I see such tremendous potential for the future. We have not even started, because the numbers we’re talking about are massive. The time for scepticism is over. People are flowing back into our country. Companies are coming back into our country. Many of you, who I know, are coming back in with your plants and your factories.
Thank you very much. America’s newfound prosperity is undeniable, unprecedented, and unmatched anywhere in the world. America achieved this stunning turnaround not by making minor changes to a handful of policies, but by adopting a whole new approach centred entirely on the wellbeing of the American worker.
Every decision we make — on taxes, trade, regulation, energy, immigration, education, and more — is focused on improving the lives of everyday Americans. We are determined to create the highest standard of living that anyone can imagine, and right now, that’s what we’re doing for our workers. The highest in the world.
And we’re determined to ensure that the working and middle class reap the largest gains. A nation’s highest duty is to its own citizens. Honoring this truth is the only way to build faith and confidence in the market system. Only when governments put their own citizens first will people be fully invested in their national futures.
In the United States, we are building an economy that works for everyone, restoring the bonds of love and loyalty that unite citizens and powers nations. Today, I hold up the American model as an example to the world of a working system of free enterprise that will produce the most benefits for the most people in the 21st century and beyond.
A pro-worker, pro-citizen, pro-family agenda demonstrates how a nation can thrive when its communities, its companies, its government, and its people work together for the good of the whole nation. As part of this new vision, we passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We doubled the child tax credit, benefitting 40 million American families and lifting 650,000 single mothers and their 1 million children out of poverty — and out of poverty quickly.
We passed the first-ever tax credit for employers who provide paid paternal leave for employees earning $72,000 less annually and passed paid family leave for government employees as a model for the country. We made childcare much more affordable and reduced or eliminated childcare waitlists all across the nation.
Our childcare reforms are supporting working parents and ensuring their children have access to high-quality care and education, all of which they very much deserve. We lowered our business tax from the highest in the developed world down to one that’s not only competitive but one of the lower taxes. We created nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones in distressed communities where capital gains on long-term investments are now taxed at zero, and tremendous wealth is pouring into areas that for a hundred years saw nothing.
The 35 million Americans who live in these areas have already seen their home values rise by more than $22 billion. My administration has also made historic investments in historically black colleges and universities. I saved HCBUs. We saved them. They were going out, and we saved them. We’re removing roadblocks to success and rewarding businesses that invest in workers, families, and communities.
We’ve also launched the most ambitious campaign in history to reduce job-killing regulations. For every new regulation adopted, we are removing eight old regulations, which will save an average of American households about $3,100 per year. It was going to be, “for every one, we do two,” but we were able to lift that to eight, and we think that’s going to go quite a bit higher.
We still have a way to go. Today, I urge other nations to follow our example and liberate your citizens from the crushing weight of bureaucracy. With that, you have to run your own countries the way you want. We’re also restoring the constitutional rule of law in America, which is essential to our economy, our liberty, and our future.