America can emerge from this crisis better than before.
 | By Kevin J. Delaney Senior editor, Opinion |
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If you want to really understand why many of our current crises in the United States are playing out as dramatically as they are, it helps to take a close look at the American worker. |
Over the past four decades, the country has effectively shifted from a nation of workers to a nation of consumers. Our economy reflects this — Americans have access to an unprecedented bounty of cheap consumer products and services, but the wages and benefits for the workers making, selling and delivering those products too often fall short. |
That’s why when the coronavirus hit, many Americans didn’t have paid sick leave, or health insurance, compounding the pandemic’s toll. A significant percentage of American families doesn’t have any savings to fall back on during this recession. And all of this has hit people of color especially hard, the result of centuries of systemic racism. |
This week and next, we’re publishing the third “chapter” of “The America We Need,” a Times Opinion project examining economic inequality. I joined the Times late last year to lead this effort, which in previous chapters explored the weaknesses in the fabric of America that the pandemic amplified, and the role cities play in building a fairer nation. I’ve been a business journalist for nearly all of my career, and the focus of this final chapter on the jobs and the economy we need for a fairer country hits on topics I’ve been thinking about for decades. |
The lead editorial looks in detail at the history of how the balance of power between employers and workers has shifted over the past half century, with the help of both Republican and Democratic administrations that enacted policies favoring employers and investors. The editorial includes the little-told story of how the burning to the ground of a Bank of America branch near Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1970 added momentum to this shift. |
In another important piece, my Times colleague David Leonhardt examines new research showing that the wage gap between black and white workers is, shockingly, as large as it was in 1950, before the end of enforced segregation across much of the South. |
Over the course of this series, we have been guided by a belief that there’s an opportunity for America to emerge from our current crises as a better place for all of its people. We’re highlighting solutions we believe should be pursued, and are featuring ideas from important thinkers, experts and readers who’ve written in. |
Consider the proposal from Lily Batchelder of N.Y.U. for how we should tax inheritances more fairly — something of great consequence given that baby boomers and the generation that preceded them hold 81 percent of all U.S. household wealth, and are now passing that wealth down to their children. Or the suggestion by Robert B. Reich, the former U.S. secretary of labor, that businesses adopt the sort of profit-sharing plans for employees common during the last century. Or the argument by Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, that philanthropy isn’t enough to fix our country, but that the wealthy need to sacrifice things like legacy college admissions and favorable tax treatments that compound inequalities. |
How do we build the America we need? We’ll be publishing more ideas over the coming week and would love to hear from you as well. |
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Here’s what we’re focusing on today: |
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