Welcome!
As a PhD candidate in political science at Yale University and a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, I spend a lot of time holed up in the ivory tower. Yet my research on business and the working poor is grounded in relevant, controversial current issues that have polarized and energized a wide range of people. Americans with honest jobs often don't earn enough to feed their families. Relatedly (really!), business owners can't survive under the burden of government regulations. This is stuff people care about. We're dealing with bedrock tenants of American culture: equality of opportunity and capitalism; hard work and entrepreneurship.
So I've started this blog as a way to publicize my views (as jargon-free as possible) and open them up for discussion. Somewhere between the shrill, anti-business left and the slick, money-driven right is a murky middle ground where we are likely to find the most satisfying answers to the problems faced by the working poor. I want to find that middle.
In this blog I will be reacting to news and public debate on all issues related to business and social policy. This includes topics such as health care, minimum and living wages, the earned income tax credit, poverty, and education. Wal-Mart, that 800-pound gorilla, is inevitably part of this story. But this is also about employers that range from Wal-Mart's competitors to Mom and Pop small businesses.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
* Business should care about social policy. A lot. The American welfare state has undergone a dramatic shift over the last decade. Where it used to target the welfare poor (the "welfare queens" of popular imagination) it now pours most of its goodies on low-wage workers and their families. If the government is giving wage subsidies, health care, food, child care subsidies, etc. to people with jobs, this matters a great deal for their employers. Do they profit from these welfare programs, as the anti-Wal-Mart crusaders assume? Maybe, but this is up for debate.
* There is NOTHING inherently wrong with welfare programs that also increase business profit. In fact, this is desirable. Programs that are mutually beneficial for low-wage workers and their employers will be much more durable than those that hurt business because they won't face the political wrath of business lobbyists down the road. In addition, when business and workers both prosper, the economy thrives and we all win.
* The only way to combat poverty among working Americans is for business and government to work together. At the moment, this is most crucial in health care. Business is largely staying out of the picture (recent calls for business involvement from Wal-Mart and Starbucks leadership notwithstanding). Health care reforms WILL happen, and if business stays out of the debate we'll end up with bad programs that are likely to fail. We've long known that business has political power -- it's time for employers to get their hands dirty in the health care debate.
* There's nothing that says business interests should be aligned with conservatives. Major business organizations -- the ones with all that political power -- want us to believe that business owners are unified in their policy preferences, and they (especially small business organizations like the NFIB) get most of their political access and influence from the Republican Party. But surveys show that individual employers are politically heterogeneous, and (surprise!) often support progressive policies, sometimes by fairly substantial majorities. At the same time, it doesn't make sense for labor to always align with Democrats. Policies like dramatically increased living wages and mandated generous health benefits end up swallowing up the very jobs low-wage workers depend on. Both sides would do well to stop predictable, destructive polarization and knee-jerk alliances and instead meet in the middle.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to weigh in!
Nicole
So I've started this blog as a way to publicize my views (as jargon-free as possible) and open them up for discussion. Somewhere between the shrill, anti-business left and the slick, money-driven right is a murky middle ground where we are likely to find the most satisfying answers to the problems faced by the working poor. I want to find that middle.
In this blog I will be reacting to news and public debate on all issues related to business and social policy. This includes topics such as health care, minimum and living wages, the earned income tax credit, poverty, and education. Wal-Mart, that 800-pound gorilla, is inevitably part of this story. But this is also about employers that range from Wal-Mart's competitors to Mom and Pop small businesses.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
* Business should care about social policy. A lot. The American welfare state has undergone a dramatic shift over the last decade. Where it used to target the welfare poor (the "welfare queens" of popular imagination) it now pours most of its goodies on low-wage workers and their families. If the government is giving wage subsidies, health care, food, child care subsidies, etc. to people with jobs, this matters a great deal for their employers. Do they profit from these welfare programs, as the anti-Wal-Mart crusaders assume? Maybe, but this is up for debate.
* There is NOTHING inherently wrong with welfare programs that also increase business profit. In fact, this is desirable. Programs that are mutually beneficial for low-wage workers and their employers will be much more durable than those that hurt business because they won't face the political wrath of business lobbyists down the road. In addition, when business and workers both prosper, the economy thrives and we all win.
* The only way to combat poverty among working Americans is for business and government to work together. At the moment, this is most crucial in health care. Business is largely staying out of the picture (recent calls for business involvement from Wal-Mart and Starbucks leadership notwithstanding). Health care reforms WILL happen, and if business stays out of the debate we'll end up with bad programs that are likely to fail. We've long known that business has political power -- it's time for employers to get their hands dirty in the health care debate.
* There's nothing that says business interests should be aligned with conservatives. Major business organizations -- the ones with all that political power -- want us to believe that business owners are unified in their policy preferences, and they (especially small business organizations like the NFIB) get most of their political access and influence from the Republican Party. But surveys show that individual employers are politically heterogeneous, and (surprise!) often support progressive policies, sometimes by fairly substantial majorities. At the same time, it doesn't make sense for labor to always align with Democrats. Policies like dramatically increased living wages and mandated generous health benefits end up swallowing up the very jobs low-wage workers depend on. Both sides would do well to stop predictable, destructive polarization and knee-jerk alliances and instead meet in the middle.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to weigh in!
Nicole
posted by Nicole at 3:20 PM
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