This morning I sent the following email to Michael Stein, Dean Baker, Justin Talbot Zorn, Phil Harvey, Karen Dolan, and Noam Chomsky:
I suggest the development of a Norquist-style “Job Opportunity Pledge” to be presented to candidates for public office.
I believe the Institute for Policy Studies would be a good central collection point.
Following is a draft of content for such a pledge:
Job Opportunity Pledge
I, _________________________________________, pledge to the American people that I will:
ONE, consistently affirm and build support for the human right to a living-wage job opportunity; and
TWO, support legislation that will help see to it that everyone who wants to work can find a living-wage job.
Feel free to “reply to all” to discuss this idea. If you prefer to opt-out of any such discussion, please do. Just let us know. No hard feelings.
An argument for this perspective is presented in “The Human Right to a Decent Job,” which has elicited the following responses:
Makes sense to me. If you haven’t seen it yet, you might be interested in the work of Robert Pollin (progressive economist at U Mass) on living wage and how to achieve it.
Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)+++
It’s an excellent article. While it’d be good to bring it down to about 750 (classic op-ed length), not essential. After carefully reviewing, I feel that every sentence has some unique value. I especially like the way you take on the conservative counter-arguments directly.
Justin Talbot Zorn, Public Policy Fellow, Harvard University++
Economists can’t come up with the right answers unless they are asked the right questions. In this brief article Wade Lee Hudson reminds us that the question we really need answered is not how low we can push the unemployment rate before inflation rates begin to rise, but how to insure the availability of enough jobs to provide decent work for everyone who wants it. If more people beat this particular drum, maybe the economics profession would begin to listen.
Philip Harvey, Professor of Law and Economics, Rutgers University++
Looks good to me. Good luck with it.
Dean Baker, Co-founder, Center for Economic and Policy Research