AN ECONOMY STUFFED WITH GOOD JOBS ... would gain the political advantage for the long haul

razoo » 19 Jun 2023, 9:11 am » wrote: ↑
19 Jun 2023, 9:11 am
At the 1944 Convention of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, A. Philip Randolph, a key leader in the civil rights and labor movements, proclaimed that “if full employment can be maintained in a war for destruction, it can also be maintained in peace for construction.” The United States had just emerged from World War II with a booming economy and nearly full employment, and many Americans saw major improvements in their living standards and working conditions.

Anxious to hold on to these gains and maintain the full-employment economy, Randolph and other organizers within the labor movement started pressing Congress to pass the Full Employment Bill.

The bill was an outgrowth of the New Deal reform coalition and its attempt to continue the prosperous wartime economy in peacetime. Roosevelt and New Deal Democrats had run on full employment in the postwar economy, in addition to a broader program of social reforms. Republicans, on the other hand, offered a more modest policy to achieve employment goals “through private enterprise.”

Ultimately, the Full Employment Act that passed Congress in 1946 was a watered-down version of Randolph’s vision, with no commitment to anything close to a jobs guarantee. But Randolph and many allies were prescient: They knew that the fight for a full-employment economy was not only a fight about economic policy but also a profoundly political one. If progressive forces could win an economy stuffed with good jobs, they would gain the political advantage for the long haul, making it possible to realize their entire progressive vision.

In many ways, Randolph’s insight continues to ring true. Even in a strong economy, workers have fought for more jobs—in fact, this is when workers have had the most leverage to do so. Bold jobs programs and full employment have long been linked to a strong economy in workers’ minds. According to new analysis of the American National Electorate Survey, since the 1940s, less-educated voters have “differentially support[ed] predistribution policies,” or in other words, a federal jobs guarantee, higher minimum wages, and policies that generally strengthen the workers’ positions in our economy.
Our current moment reflects some of the same lessons. While unemployment rates are low, the rates for those who are underemployed are twice as high and demands for an economy with more good jobs persist. Despite policy roadblocks, progressives should listen to this call and proffer a vision that puts bolder jobs programs like full employment back on the agenda.

https://www.thenation.com/article/polit ... democrats/

that's what tax breaks for employers are SUPPOSED to be for; to make it more profitable/equitable to hire more employees.
BTW, i know they(tax breaks) get abused.

if the progressives win for the long haul, you'll be working ok, for pennies or subsistence.
Growth, not stagnation creates jobs.

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AN ECONOMY STUFFED WITH GOOD JOBS ... would gain the political advantage for the long haul

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