Reviving the Working Class Without Building Walls
Any long-term strategy to improve workers’ lot, of course, must include improving their skills. But just kicking the challenge down the road under the fuzzy prescription that all America needs is better education and training — a favorite of policy makers and their economic advisers — is no longer acceptable for workers who have suffered multiple rounds of dislocation over several decades.
.. Stepping into the vacuum, the technologically endowed of Silicon Valley are talking about a future that bypasses the labor market entirely. They areoffering up a universal basic income — financed by taxing rich capitalists and an elite corps of computer programmers tasked with making sure the robots perform meticulously — as the tool to satisfy people’s basic needs without any work involved.
,, the United States suffers the highest incidence of low pay among its members. A quarter of workers earn less than two-thirds of the median wage.
.. over the last few decades, about 13 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product was redistributed to the top 1 percent from the rest of the population. “It is not crazy to suggest,” he said, “that some percentage of that could be shared with a broader group.”
.. any plan to help Mr. Trump’s beleaguered supporters may end up entangled in ideological knots