The current way is not working. The economy must grow and the government spending must shrink. 100,000,000 people are not working. As more of them work, more taxes are raised. Instead of tax money drains, they become tax money generators.
The inner city revival plays an important role as well. More people off welfare via work/business means less spending for welfare.
None of it is easy but necessary.
1. In any financial transaction, buyers will seek the lowest price possible for the type and quality of a product or service they are buying. At the same time, sellers will look for the highest price possible.
2. An employment arrangement involves a "buyer" (the employer) and a "seller" (a worker).
3. One of the simple realities of an economy is that a worker will usually demand far more for his/her services than he/she would ever pay another worker for the same services.
Point #3 underlies almost every policy decision that is made by a government, and every business decision that is made by a private employer, in an advanced country like ours where labor costs are extremely high. "Free trade" gives us the ability to do things in a foreign trade situation that we'd never be allowed to do under the law right here in the U.S. -- namely, paying workers less than our statutory minimum wages, buying products that are made in factories that violate every environmental standard under our laws and fail to meet minimal worker safety standards, etc.
Tariffs won't do anything to alter this reality in which we live.