Few people believe that private unions in the United States had excessive power in the 1970s. Yet the share of private sector workers in unions has fallen from over 24 percent in 1973 to under 7 percent today. Unions are surely too weak today.Maybe it was that they did have excessive power back in the 70s, Larry, and that caused them to price their members out of their jobs. And, surely construction unions that notoriously kept black Americans out of the skilled trades back then were too powerful.
Their weakness most clearly shows up in workers who have difficulty maintaining a middle class lifestyle.With their own computers and smart phones?
In a more profound way, the weakness of unions leaves a broad swath of the middle class largely unrepresented in the political process, paving the way for the kind of disillusionment that has driven the Trump candidacy.Well, then they are hardly unrepresented in the political process, are they. But Larry Summers has a Phd in economics from Harvard. Does he believe that Donald Trump's exclusionary rhetoric is devoted to increasing the well-being of the average American consumer?
After all, no society is going to remain stable and confident in its central institutions if parents do not believe their kids can lead better lives than they did.Then maybe prominent Americans with access to news media shouldn't be spouting nonsense about the 'declining middle class. You know, the people with Blue Tooth, high def TV, cars that go 100,000 miles without needing tuning up....
In 2009, at the Brookings Institution, I spoke about the important role of unions in generating broadly shared growth.I guess Larry hasn’t talked to Sonia Sotomayor (appointed to the Supreme Court by the same Barack Obama who employed Larry as an adviser) lately. I.e., ‘That’s what unions do every day — protect people in the union from those not in the union.” [our bold]
I said, “If we want to propel this economy forward and we want to have a sound expansion, it has to be an expansion whose benefits are more broadly shared. And that goes to the question of tax policy and progressivity, it goes to the question of education over the longer term, and it goes to the question of having a healthy and well-functioning trade union movement.”That will protect some Americans at the expense of other Americans. The way things are done in France.
supporting unions not only helps workers who are members themselves but also helps their children and communities as well.
Few people believe that private unions in the United States had excessive power in the 1970s. Yet the share of private sector workers in unions has fallen from over 24 percent in 1973 to under 7 percent today. Unions are surely too weak today. Their weakness most clearly shows up in workers who have difficulty maintaining a middle class lifestyle. In a more profound way, the weakness of unions leaves a broad swath of the middle class largely unrepresented in the political process, paving the way for the kind of disillusionment that has driven the Trump candidacy. After all, no society is going to remain stable and confident in its central institutions if parents do not believe their kids can lead better lives than they did.
In 2009, at the Brookings Institution, I spoke about the important role of unions in generating broadly shared growth. I said, “If we want to propel this economy forward and we want to have a sound expansion, it has to be an expansion whose benefits are more broadly shared. And that goes to the question of tax policy and progressivity, it goes to the question of education over the longer term, and it goes to the question of having a healthy and well-functioning trade union movement.”
- See more at: http://larrysummers.com/2015/09/10/thoughts-on-freemans-bargaining-for-the-american-dream/#sthash.Yt1cGWyn.dpuf
Few people believe that private unions in the United States had excessive power in the 1970s. Yet the share of private sector workers in unions has fallen from over 24 percent in 1973 to under 7 percent today. Unions are surely too weak today. Their weakness most clearly shows up in workers who have difficulty maintaining a middle class lifestyle. In a more profound way, the weakness of unions leaves a broad swath of the middle class largely unrepresented in the political process, paving the way for the kind of disillusionment that has driven the Trump candidacy. After all, no society is going to remain stable and confident in its central institutions if parents do not believe their kids can lead better lives than they did.
In 2009, at the Brookings Institution, I spoke about the important role of unions in generating broadly shared growth. I said, “If we want to propel this economy forward and we want to have a sound expansion, it has to be an expansion whose benefits are more broadly shared. And that goes to the question of tax policy and progressivity, it goes to the question of education over the longer term, and it goes to the question of having a healthy and well-functioning trade union movement.”
- See more at: http://larrysummers.com/2015/09/10/thoughts-on-freemans-bargaining-for-the-american-dream/#sthash.Yt1cGWyn.dpuf
supporting unions not only helps workers who are members themselves but also helps their children and communities as well.
Few people believe that private unions in the United States had excessive power in the 1970s. Yet the share of private sector workers in unions has fallen from over 24 percent in 1973 to under 7 percent today. Unions are surely too weak today. Their weakness most clearly shows up in workers who have difficulty maintaining a middle class lifestyle. In a more profound way, the weakness of unions leaves a broad swath of the middle class largely unrepresented in the political process, paving the way for the kind of disillusionment that has driven the Trump candidacy. After all, no society is going to remain stable and confident in its central institutions if parents do not believe their kids can lead better lives than they did.
In 2009, at the Brookings Institution, I spoke about the important role of unions in generating broadly shared growth. I said, “If we want to propel this economy forward and we want to have a sound expansion, it has to be an expansion whose benefits are more broadly shared. And that goes to the question of tax policy and progressivity, it goes to the question of education over the longer term, and it goes to the question of having a healthy and well-functioning trade union movement.”
- See more at: http://larrysummers.com/2015/09/10/thoughts-on-freemans-bargaining-for-the-american-dream/#sthash.Yt1cGWyn.dpuf
Few people believe that private unions in the United States had excessive power in the 1970s. Yet the share of private sector workers in unions has fallen from over 24 percent in 1973 to under 7 percent today. Unions are surely too weak today. Their weakness most clearly shows up in workers who have difficulty maintaining a middle class lifestyle. In a more profound way, the weakness of unions leaves a broad swath of the middle class largely unrepresented in the political process, paving the way for the kind of disillusionment that has driven the Trump candidacy. After all, no society is going to remain stable and confident in its central institutions if parents do not believe their kids can lead better lives than they did.
In 2009, at the Brookings Institution, I spoke about the important role of unions in generating broadly shared growth. I said, “If we want to propel this economy forward and we want to have a sound expansion, it has to be an expansion whose benefits are more broadly shared. And that goes to the question of tax policy and progressivity, it goes to the question of education over the longer term, and it goes to the question of having a healthy and well-functioning trade union movement.”
- See more at: http://larrysummers.com/2015/09/10/thoughts-on-freemans-bargaining-for-the-american-dream/#sthash.Yt1cGWyn.dpuf
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