Bold Policies for Economic Justice

The Review of Black Political Economy - Tập 39 - Trang 79-85 - 2012
William Darity1, Darrick Hamilton2
1African and African-American Studies and Economics, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, USA
2The Milano Graduate School, Urban Policy, Department of Economics, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School, New York, USA

Tóm tắt

The U.S. is characterized by a longstanding pattern of large structural racial inequality that deepens further as a result of economic downturn. Although there have been some improvements in the income gap up until around the mid 1970s, the employment gap, and the racial wealth gap - two dramatic indicators of economic security - remains exorbitant and stubbornly persistent. We offer two race-neutral programs that could go a long way towards eliminating racial inequality, while at the same time providing economic security, mobility and sustainability for all Americans. The first program, a federal job guarantee, would provide the economic security of a job and the removal of the threat of unemployment for all Americans. The second program, a substantial child development account that rises progressively based on the familial asset positioning of the child’s parents, would provide a pathways towards asset security for all Americans regardless of their economic position at birth.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Corporation for Enterprise Development. Hidden in plain sight: a look at the $335 billion federal asset building budget. Washington: Corporation for Enterprise Development; 2004. Darity Jr W. A direct route to full-employment. Review of Black Political Economy. 2010;37(3,4):179–81. Darity Jr W, Hamilton D. Bernanke ignores history of black and white wealth rift. The Grio. October 30, 2009. Delaney A, Nasiripour S. Americans want to get back to work: why won’t the government hire them? The Huffington Post. February 24, 2010. Gittleman M, Wolff EN. Racial differences in patterns of wealth accumulation. The Journal of Human Resources. 2004;39(1):193–227. Hamilton D, Darity Jr W. Can ‘baby bonds’ eliminate the racial wealth gap in putative post-racial America? Review of Black Political Economy. 2010;37(3,4):207–16. Hamilton D, Darity Jr W. Race, wealth, and intergenerational poverty: there will never be a post-racial America if the wealth gap persists. The American Prospect. September/October 2009. Hamilton D, Austin A, Darity Jr W. Occupational segregation and the lower wages of black men. Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper. 2011. Harvey P. Securing the right to full-employment: social welfare policy and the unemployed in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1989. Harvey P. Direct job creation. In: Warner A, Forstater M, Rosen SM, editors. The commitment to full employment: the economics and social policy of William S. Vickrey. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe; 2000. p. 35–54. Kocchar R. The wealth of Hispanic households. Washington: Pew Hispanic Center; 2004. Sherraden M. Assets and the poor: a new American welfare policy. Armonk: Sharpe; 1991. Taylor P, Kochhar R, Fry R. Wealth gaps rise to record highs between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. Washington: Pew Hispanic Center; 2011. Pager D. The Mark of a Criminal Record. American Journal of Sociology. 2003;108(5):937–975. Woo BW, Rademacher I, Meier J. Upside down: the $400 billion federal asset-building budget. Baltimore: Anne E. Casey Foundation; 2010. Wray LR. Job guarantee. In Darity Jr W, editor. International encyclopedia of the social sciences. Vol 4. Detroit. Thomas Gale (Macmillan References USA): 2008. p. 204–6. Wray LR, Forstater M. Full-employment and social justice. In: Champlin D, Knoedler JT, editors. The institutionalist tradition in labor economics. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe; 2004. p. 253–72.