A significant factor determining where the tax dollars of working-class Americans are allocated is age. Social Security and Medicare, federal programs that support America’s senior population, had budgets of $1.6 trillion and $988 billion, respectively, in 2025. While these payments reflect the tax contributions of senior generations to the federal government over decades, many young people have developed a pessimism about how their tax dollars will be used to immediately benefit them in a strained job market.

On July 4th, 2026, the Trump administration, through their One Big Beautiful Bill Act, will be rolling out Trump accounts, a tax-advantaged savings account seeded with an initial payment of $1,000 by the federal government that all children born from 2025 to 2028 are eligible for. Parents (and even employers) can then further invest up to $5,000 a year into these Trump accounts for 18 years, which will be invested into mutual funds, ETFs that track the S&P 500, or similar indexes that coincide with the strength of the American stock market. Children can only withdraw from these accounts upon turning 18, and would pay no 10% penalty, as is expected with early withdrawals from IRAs, as long as their money is utilized for purposes of education, buying a home, starting a business, medical expenses, or disability.

This policy is particularly great for 2 reasons: Trump accounts will be a great tool for millions to achieve economic independence with the utility of compounding capital, and they will foster a strong sociological connection between the individual success of Americans and the success of the nation.

For 18-year-old Americans who have just found independence, the potential accrued wealth they could utilize from their Trump accounts would be life-changing. The S&P 500, which most of these Trump accounts will be linked to, has returned an average of 10.3% return every year since 1928 (with dividends reinvested). While past returns are not a guarantee of future performance, even a conservative assumption of 7% growth per year over 18 years would mean that an 18-year-old could receive anywhere between $3,380 to $185,275, depending on how often their maximum contribution from their parents or employers of $5,000 per year is made.

This is life-changing money. The median American only has $500 of emergency savings. Even at a minimum conservative estimate, a $3,380 payout for millions of 18-year-old Americans would give them a serious head start. If Trump accounts further became a point of pride for parents, employers, and philanthropists to invest in, they could legitimately change the nation. Young Americans would be able to afford years’ worth of rent, attend college without accruing crippling debt and having to take predatory student loans, put down payments on their first homes, and create a safety net to allow young adults to pursue timely opportunities they otherwise couldn’t due to financial pressures. Compared to today’s reality, where most people start their adult lives with either nothing to their name or worse, the potential of Trump accounts would cause a powerfully positive shift, one that could let millions of Americans build generational wealth.

More broadly, Trump accounts could greatly reduce socioeconomic tensions in the country. According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the top 10% of U.S. households own roughly 87% of stocks, while the bottom 50% owns only 1%. Although nearly 60% of Americans own stocks indirectly, mostly through retirement accounts, millions of non-retired Americans are largely disconnected from market gains generated in the stock market by their own contributions. Through directly and visibly tying people’s financial resources to the success of the American economy, Trump can create a more collaborative and united national culture towards excellence.

Alaska’s collective sovereign-wealth-style fund provides a proof of concept for this. In 1982, Alaska utilized tax revenue to create a wealth fund that paid annual dividends to all residents. Alaskans have collectively and in a bipartisan manner taken immense pride in the Permanent Fund Dividend, as it provides residents with a sense that they personally own a piece of their state’s success. Trump accounts could create this same effect at a national level and change popular sentiments of “the economy” from being a mere abstraction that benefits someone else to something every American has a stake in. This would foster national pride tied to real industrial, corporate, and institutional improvements that no other government program would.

Coming from the University of Chicago and generally believing that the government should keep its hands off the economy, I would agree that, in an ideal world, I wouldn’t support this program. The United States is $39 trillion in debt, meaning that government investment in Trump accounts is done through deficit spending, which devalues the dollar and increases inflation. However, in our current reality, where the Federal government is operating on $7 trillion budgets that balloon federal debt, using such arguments singularly against Trump accounts is unfairly targeted. 

According to the CDC, around 3.6 million babies were born in the United States in 2025. If each of these babies received a $1,000 investment from the government, total government expenditure from the Trump Account program would be just $3.6 billion per year, a small cost compared to things like Social Security’s $1.6 trillion dollar annual budget or President Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion military budget. In a broken system, an allocation of $3.6 billion dollars a year to specifically give a head start to all Americans of the next generation would be one of the best uses of federal money currently available. Trump accounts should be one of the last places fiscal hawks look towards to cut government spending; there is definitely bigger fish to fry.

By creating a system where every American, regardless of their economic status, can become a part of the success of the country’s economy, we are opening the door to creating a more united society. Main Street and Wall Street could finally be able to stop fighting and work together towards a better country.