Bill Scher: Time For The G-Word

[marmar]

for OurFuture.org:



Time For The G-Word
By Bill Scher

September 16th, 2008 - 10:21am ET




To spark a debate worthy of a great nation in trouble, The Institute for America's Future "Op-Ad" series launches today in the New York Times. The first installment is here, on "Reviving the American Dream."

Since the last seven years have seen corporate profits soaring but wages not keeping pace with inflation, the Op-Ad calls for a "new social contract" -- Make it easier for workers to organize. Guarantee decent wages, pensions, health care, vacation and sick leave. Establish "full employment" as "the central target of our economic policies, with government acting, when necessary, as employer of last resort."

All of that involves having our government get off the sidelines, where conservatism has left it, and back on the field -- setting and enforcing rules of the road, and picking up the slack where the private sector falls short.

Uttering the government G-word has been taboo in our debate for a long time. But as the conservative failures pile up, that's changing. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008093816/time-g-word