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Guaranteed Employment and Universal Child Care For a New Social Contract

Author

Listed:
  • Jon D. Wisman
  • Aaron Pacitti
Abstract
The United States is falling behind many other rich nations on a broad spectrum of measures of the quality of life. These include social mobility, inequality, education, crime, health and longevity. Polls suggest that many Americans have not only lost their optimism concerning the future, but have become angry as well. This article sets forth the elements of a new social contract, one that would deliver substantial results almost overnight and which conforms to the traditional American values of the importance of work, that everyone should have a fair opportunity for upwards mobility, and the central importance of the family. This proposal is composed of two parts: The first is guaranteed employment, and where necessary, the retraining required to enable workers to successfully enter the regular workforce. The second is universal child care to give all parents the possibility of participating in the labor force. The article discusses in depth how these measures would reverse the relative decline in quality of life in America. It also reveals how, although these measure would be costly, their payoff for the economy would far offset the costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon D. Wisman & Aaron Pacitti, 2017. "Guaranteed Employment and Universal Child Care For a New Social Contract," Working Papers 2017-05, American University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:2017-05
    DOI: 10.17606/aq84-cj68
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Job Guarantee: Marxist or Keynesian?
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2018-05-11 13:07:19

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Guaranteed employment; retraining; social costs of unemployment; child care;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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