Opinion by J1 Reporter Izumi Huang Fuijwara

During the election, I talked to many people about how they were planning to vote or who they supported in the upcoming election. I was extremely disappointed when I saw that many people didn’t actually understand the decisions that would be taken by government figures if elected. This is even more relevant now because the things government officials claimed they would do are actually being done.

Not everyone in my generation truly understands the truth and actual repercussions that would come from the policies government officials planned to put in place.

Cut to now—tariffs. As a definition, they are a tax on imported goods into the country. The current tariff amount is absolutely devastating to our economy and foreign relations. Because people don’t understand the magnitude of these things, some are still in denial about the intensity of this problem.

In the status quo, though, we are seeing a 90-day pause, which seems to actually help the economy instead of making it worse. This shows that it is better for the economy not to have these tariffs, because when they aren’t in place, the economy performs better.

It is just a commonly known fact among economists who are well-trained in this specialty: tariffs are just never good. This shows a difference between well-educated people and those who don’t understand what they are talking about.

This brings me to my second point: there are many skewed stereotypes of people and groups who are marginalized within America. This is especially emphasized when it comes to immigrants, whether undocumented or documented. The stereotype that has influenced the way many Americans think has been harmful to these groups. One of these stereotypes is the idea that immigrants are stealing American jobs.

This stereotype is so harmful to immigrants who try so hard to come and seek a decent life—one they cannot have in their home countries but believe they can have in America. The stereotype is also wrong because there is still a high amount of unemployment, which means there are still plenty of jobs people could be taking—but many people don’t take them.

If people would just educate themselves more on the economic state of the countries people are fleeing from, they would realize they would do the same thing any immigrant does to come to America.

Speaking as an immigrant myself, I do not see my family doing as well in El Salvador, regardless of my dad’s extensive education as a doctor, compared to how he is doing here. This is just another example of the problems that come with people who don’t educate themselves properly.

Whereas many of these opinions are debated, many people take a side without doing proper research. Therefore, America needs a lot more education on current events and on the lives of many people. Moreover, I acknowledge that there are many debates where people just need to be more educated. The ones mentioned above are the ones that stand out to me the most.

Leave me a comment and help me learn or understand your perspective!