Andrew Yang: What good are record-high profits if we have record-high stress, anxiety, student loan debt

"Our economy is the envy of the world, and we're going to keep it that way. So that's very important," said President Donald Trump on Dec. 7 from the South Lawn of the White House. Trump said he is to thank for that strong economy, which is a primary thrust of his 2020 reelection campaign.

Were Democratic candidate for president Andrew Yang to debate Trump on the economy, Yang said he would highlight the toxicity of the environment in which the economy has been flourishing.

"I would just tell American people the facts they already know; that you have record-high levels of corporate profits, but also at record highs in the United States of America right now: stress, anxiety, mental illness, depression, even suicides and drug overdoses. Student loan debt, record highs," Yang told podcast Freakonomics in an episode published Wednesday.

"And so you have to ask," said Yang "'What good are corporate profits if people are literally dying earlier because of surges in suicides and drug overdoses?'"

Corporate profits are close to record highs. The National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), show that corporate profits are just slightly below the record high hit in the third quarter of 2014. And S&P 500 companies' earnings (weighted by their market cap and measured by the Standard and Poor's rating agency) shows that at the end of the second quarter, earnings per share of the index were at $40.14. The record was $41.38, hit in the third quarter of 2018.