Obama's Job Policy
by guest blogger Lanse Minkler, author of the new release Integrity and Agreement:Economics When Principles Also Matter ->LOOK INSIDE
President-elect Obama’s campaign pledge to create 2 million jobs through public investment in infrastructure looks like a political promise that might actually be kept. Apparently, FDR’s New Deal approach provides the inspiration. While many will fear the reach of this new program, and especially its cost, I am among those human rights advocates who say that it will not go far enough.
In 1944 FDR proposed a second bill of rights. Motivated by the experience of the Great Depression, the goal of the second bill was to ensure that no one suffer from want because “a necessitous man is not a free man.” Real freedom, not equality, was the goal. That kind of freedom, the kind that assures human dignity, also underlies economic rights as found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and signed by virtually all nations of the world. All humans have the right to an adequate standard of living, secured by the right to employment and income supports for those unable to work. That means that all those who would like to work are entitled to it, and the government should provide a job as a last resort. But because the public works program envisioned by the new administration reflects a policy choice rather than a legally protected program to secure the right to employment (and thus the right to an adequate standard of living), it does not go far enough. Policies can be changed with the whims of politicians, rights cannot.
Making economic rights the law transcends political positions. Conservatives will flinch at the right to
employment’s anticipated cost. However, Philip Harvey estimates that 82% of cost of the right from 1977-1986 (when unemployment averaged 7%) would have already been accounted for in the federal budget. The provision of public employment would eliminate the need for redundant programs, and would net additional payroll taxes. But if we took the right seriously economists could recommend sound institutional design that reduces costs and aligns incentive. Some liberals, on the other hand, may not like making freedom from want depend on doing work. Of course the right to employment cannot be counted on to provide for those that are too young or old, or otherwise unable to provide for themselves. But social responsibility only goes so far; for those of us who are able, there is also the responsibility to provide for ourselves. The right of employment allows each of us to do just that, and thereby allows us to express our human agency.
Minkler is the author of the new book Integrity and Agreement: Economics When Principles Matter.
EDUCATORS: Request an exam copy of this title HERE.
