LAT op-ed: Rebuilding the middle class with massive infrastructure projects

[DeepModem Mom]

Rebuilding the middle class
Forget tax cuts and minimum-wage hikes; it's time for massive infrastructure projects that put millions to work in well-paying jobs.
By Joel Kotkin and David Friedman, JOEL KOTKIN is an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of "The City: A Global History." DAVID FRIEDMAN is also a senior fellow at the foundation.
December 3, 2006

OVER THE LAST 20 years, the United States has regressed into what one economist calls a "plutonomy" — a society in which the largest economic gains flow to an ever smaller portion of the population. According to recent economic statistics, from 1999 to 2004, the inflation-adjusted income of the bottom 90% of all U.S. households grew by 2%, compared with a 57% jump for the richest 10%. Incomes rose by more than 87% for households annually making $1 million and more than doubled for those that take home about $20 million a year.

Most disturbingly, workers losing the most economic ground are not the uneducated and unskilled but those with high school, community college and even four-year degrees. Overall, the middle class, in relative if not absolute terms, has lost purchasing power, especially in big coastal cities where the highest earners and the super-rich have driven up prices for housing and the cost of living. Globalization and automation have not only hurt manufacturing workers but also mid-level managers, engineers and software programmers. Despite enormous media and stock market hype, for instance, the U.S. has lost more than 700,000 information industry jobs since early 2001.

Is there any way to restore the prospects of middle- and working-class Americans? A comprehensive program to rebuild the nation's highways and bridges, upgrade its ports, construct and expand its energy lifelines and enlarge its public transportation systems could generate hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. Admittedly, this back-to-basics strategy is not glamorous. But it has helped narrow economic inequality in the past by producing more balanced economic growth....

***

The current favored policy proposals will do little to change economic disparity. The Republican package of high-end tax cuts, pork-barrel spending projects such as the bridge to nowhere in Alaska and near-total neglect of the country's industrial base by generally ignoring unfair trade practices constitutes a veritable formula for continued inequality....Democrats also have few answers. Many focus on increasing the U.S. minimum wage or expanding the "living wage" movement that has taken hold in Los Angeles and San Francisco. But the chief beneficiaries of these policies are younger part-time workers, not primary household wage-earners. One study by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that such measures, while boosting the wages of those affected by them, also reduce overall regional employment by as much as 6% to 8% among lower-skilled workers....

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-kotkin3dec03,0,2112454.story?track=mostemailedlink

[OneBlueSky]

1. sounds like a "new deal" to me . . . n/t

.

[nolabels]

2. New LA TIMES publisher is a Right Wing Hatchet man

I am sure there is more to the story. The Tribune company is set for meltdown with a few local billionaires waiting in the wing to buy away the LA Times when it does.



New LA TIMES publisher is a Right Wing Hatchet man with ties to Judge Roberts and Ken Starr
By: John Amato on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 4:32 PM - PDT

Last night David Hiller, from the Chicago Tribune came into town to replace Jeffrey Johnson because he "publicly opposed a corporate demand for a stringent cost-cutting plan last month," In other words he was fired. Johnson would not bow down to the right wing Chicago Tribune.

Update: "Los Angeles Times editor Dean Baquet will stay at the newspaper for the time being, even after the paper‘s publisher was ousted following his and Baquet‘s refusal to make staff cuts ordered by parent company Tribune,"
(more,snip)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/06/new-la-times-publisher-is-a-right-wing-hatchet-man-with-ties-to-judge-roberts-and-ken-starr/

[pinto]

3. The authors are from the New America Foundation, more here:

http://www.newamerica.net/


Mission
Powerful forces -- from rapid technological change to massive demographic shifts, from economic globalization to the rise of new global powers -- are remaking America. Now, more than ever, our nation needs a robust public debate that does justice to the complex challenges and opportunities of this unfolding era. Instead, there is a dearth of new thinking on both sides of the political divide, and a lack of investment in developing the creative young minds most capable of crafting new public policy solutions.

The purpose of New America Foundation is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation’s public discourse. Relying on a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Through its fellowships and issue-specific programs, the Foundation sponsors a wide range of research, writing, conferences and public outreach on the most important global and domestic issues of our time.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, post-partisan, public policy institute that was established through the collaborative work of a diverse and intergenerational group of public intellectuals, civic leaders and business executives. Launched in 1999, the Foundation is guided by its founding President and CEO Ted Halstead, and an outstanding Board of Directors. New America is headquartered in our nation’s capital and also has a significant presence in California, the nation’s largest laboratory of democracy.

Board of Directors

Eric A. Benhamou
Chairman, 3Com Corporation & Palm Inc.; Chairman and CEO, Benhamou Global Ventures, LLC

James Fallows
Board Chairman, New America Foundation; National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly

Francis Fukuyama
Professor of International Political Economy, Johns Hopkins University

Ted Halstead
President & CEO, New America Foundation

Noosheen Hashemi
President, HAND Foundation

Laurene Powell Jobs
President of the Board, College Track

Kati Marton
Author & Journalist

Walter Russell Mead
Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

Lenny Mendonca
Chairmain, McKinsey Global Institute

Steven Rattner
Managing Principal, Quadrangle Group, LLC

Eric Schmidt
Chairman & CEO, Google, Inc.

Bernard L. Schwartz
Retired Chairman & CEO, Loral Space & Communications Ltd.

Anne-Marie Slaughter
Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Laura D'Andrea Tyson
Dean, London Business School

Christine Todd Whitman
President, Whitman Strategy Group

Daniel Yergin
Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Associates

Fareed Zakaria
Editor, Newsweek International

[Kiouni]

4. sounds pro-active to me

instead of some workers torching forests to get work. But what we the middle class don't realize is that the income of the super-rich and the destabilization of the american dollar are not directly linked! but if it were that would be quite a coincidence.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Been saying this for years.

Energy decentralization and oil-independence has the advantage of being job intensive. Not only do we reinvest in education and jobs to meet the needs, but we gain economic/energy security by not having to protect our sea lanes for ME oil. The hidden cost of our dependence on oil is our $500BB defense budget and our international reputation which we've lost due to an unprovoked war and occupation to steal someone else's natural resources. This is the defining difference between Republicans (Big Oil) and Democrats. I really hope that Congressional Democrats develop a comprehensive vision to make this happen. Just let the Republicans try to veto such a program.

[The2ndWheel]

6. "Globalization and automation"

If these are the problems, wouldn't the solution be to get rid of the problems?

[Crandor]

7. benefits from globalization are pretty modest, i'll admit

but without automation we would still be working 16 hours a day for food, and nearly nothing else.

Maybe it's time you took a closer look at the rules? "Democratic Underground is an online community for Democrats and other progressives. Members are expected to be generally supportive of progressive ideals" If you don't like progress, go find another board.

[The2ndWheel]

8. Automation ain't progress

If anything, it cheapens human and non-human life.

"we would still be working 16 hours a day for food"

We still have to buy food, right? We have to use money for housing. We have to use money for various bills. Still working for it. And today, we have less control over where our food comes from, how it's made, what it's made of. But, I guess "progress" comes at a price. "Progress" means the further separation of you(the royal one) from life.

Like I said, you either fix the problem, or you just make the problem worse. My guess is we'll make the problem worse.