Krugman: ‘Union Resurgence’ a Vital Part of ‘New New Deal’

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/10/19/krugman-union-resurgence-a-vital-part-of-new-new-deal/

by Payson Schwin, Oct 19, 2007

This is a cross post from the Firedoglake blog.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported the “richest Americans’ share of national income has hit a postwar record,” and “the rich last had this high a share of total income in the 1920s.” The report is the latest evidence of the consistently widening income gap between America’s super-rich and working poor.

With impeccable timing, economist Paul Krugman leaps into the debate with The Conscience of a Liberal, a necessary book describing the causes of, and possible solutions to, today’s growing income inequality.



And in the book, Krugman rightly argues that “revitalizing unions should be a key progressive goal” because a strengthened labor movement will lead to greater economic fairness.

Krugman describes the political and economic reasons behind the “current disconnect between overall economic growth and the fortunes of typical Americans,” or what he calls the “new Gilded Age.” And he has advice for what the new progressive majority in Congress should do with their newfound power:

My answer is that it should, for the nation’s sake, pursue an unabashedly liberal program of expanding the social safety net and reducing inequality—a new New Deal. The starting point for that program, the twenty-first-century equivalent of Social Security, should be universal health care, something every other advanced country already has.

Krugman, a Princeton economics professor and winner of the John Bates Clark Medal, separates the three eras of income inequality in the United States—the “Long Gilded Age” (the period from the 1870s until the New Deal policies of the 1930s), the “Great Compression” (the 1940s and 1950s) and the “Great Divergence” (the 1970s to modern day).

FULL story at link.

[monktonman]

1. Thanks for keeping the pro-union posts going Steve

I was shocked at how ugly people were when GM went on strike recently.
I couldnt believe these were Dems saying such nasty things.
Thanks again.