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The Decline and Revival of a Living Wage

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Macroeconomic Policy and a Living Wage

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Abstract

This chapter considers the decline in the elements of the political economy of a living wage, collective bargaining, social insurance and the minimum wage, along with the decline in Keynesian economics that took place after the 1960s and ended the hybrid system of redistributive economics. These declines carried with them a reduction in the living wage, not just as a term but as a level of income. This reduction of income brought back the use of the term a living wage as part of the lexicon of our day, with union leaders, politicians, academic economists and community organizers using the term widely and reviving its popularity. The new advocates for a living wage recognized the decline of the hybrid system of redistributive economics as part of the federal government’s responsibility under the Employment Act and began a grassroots movement to promote a living wage at the local level, starting in Baltimore in the early 1990s.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lichtenstein, 2002, p. 5.

  2. 2.

    For a more complete discussion of the economic and political issues of the 1970s as related to the hybrid system of redistributive economics, see Crouse, 2018, Chaps. 3–10, especially Chap. 9 on Keynesian economics versus supply-side economics.

  3. 3.

    Stein, 1994, pp. 16 and 221.

  4. 4.

    Crouse, 2018, pp. 1358–1375.

  5. 5.

    Stein, 1994, pp. 141–142.

  6. 6.

    See Nixon, 1971, for an example.

  7. 7.

    Crouse, 2018, pp. 1521–1523.

  8. 8.

    Marglin, 1990, pp. 17–18.

  9. 9.

    Stein, 1994, pp. 241–294.

  10. 10.

    Lindert and Williamson, 2016, p. 240.

  11. 11.

    Wilentz, 2016, p. 582.

  12. 12.

    Lindert and Williamson, 2016, p. 219.

  13. 13.

    Temin, 2017, p. 267; Kaufman, 2018, pp. 134–137.

  14. 14.

    Nordlund, 1997, p. 123.

  15. 15.

    Eichengreen, 2018, p. 111.

  16. 16.

    American Federationist, 1961, p. 21.

  17. 17.

    Meany, 1961, p. 2.

  18. 18.

    Goldfinger, 1961, p. 2.

  19. 19.

    Killingsworth, 1961, p. 28.

  20. 20.

    Barkin, 1961, p. 5.

  21. 21.

    Tyler, 1963, pp. 1–5.

  22. 22.

    Hansen, 1960, pp. 37–38.

  23. 23.

    Dubofsky and Dulles, 2010, p. 361.

  24. 24.

    Zelizer, 2015, pp. 70 and 167–168.

  25. 25.

    Feigenbaum et al., 2018, p. 1.

  26. 26.

    Bluestone and Harrison, 1982, p. 6; Friedman, 2008, p. 12; Kotz, 2015, p. 6.

  27. 27.

    Lichtenstein, 2002, p. 215.

  28. 28.

    Galbraith, 1967, pp. 219–220.

  29. 29.

    Galbraith, 1967, p. 269.

  30. 30.

    Galbraith, 1967, p. 274.

  31. 31.

    Galbraith, 1967, p. 280.

  32. 32.

    Gompers, 2015.

  33. 33.

    Hacker and Pierson, 2016, pp. 2267–2268.

  34. 34.

    Temin, 2017, p. 142.

  35. 35.

    Reich et al., 1973, p. 359.

  36. 36.

    Reich et al., 1973, p. 361.

  37. 37.

    Reich et al., 1973, pp. 361 and 364.

  38. 38.

    Frank, 2016, p. 44.

  39. 39.

    Frank, 2016, p. 68.

  40. 40.

    For a concise discussion of the issues with SSA pensions, see Gibney, 2017, pp. 215–235.

  41. 41.

    For a concise discussion of the issues with healthcare, see Gibney, 2017, pp. 215–235.

  42. 42.

    Riley, 2016, pp. 87–111.

  43. 43.

    JEC, 1965, pp. 80–81.

  44. 44.

    Boddy and Crotty, 1975, p. 1.

  45. 45.

    Boddy and Crotty, 1975, p. 2.

  46. 46.

    Temin, 2017, pp. 1866–1890, 1914 and 2091–2092.

  47. 47.

    Hacker and Pierson, 2016, pp. 3663–3664.

  48. 48.

    Gibney, 2017, pp. 176–193.

  49. 49.

    Fusfeld, 1973, p. 35.

  50. 50.

    Stabile, 2016.

  51. 51.

    Fusfeld, 1973, p. 36.

  52. 52.

    Fusfeld, 1973, pp. 40–41.

  53. 53.

    Vietorisz et al., 1975, p. 94.

  54. 54.

    Vietorisz et al., 1975, p. 98.

  55. 55.

    Vietorisz et al., 1975, p. 98.

  56. 56.

    Vietorisz et al., 1975, pp. 101–104.

  57. 57.

    Vietorisz et al., 1975, pp. 105–106.

  58. 58.

    Luce, 2002, p. 402; Lange, 2014; Snarr, 2011, pp. 2–3.

  59. 59.

    Luce, 2002, p. 403.

  60. 60.

    Lange, 2014.

  61. 61.

    Dorfman, 1949, p. 254.

  62. 62.

    Pollin and Luce, 2000, p. 1; Freeman, 2005, pp. 14–15.

  63. 63.

    Luce, 2002, p. 403.

  64. 64.

    Snarr, 2011, p. 19.

  65. 65.

    Luce, 2004, pp. 33–35.

  66. 66.

    Bernstein, 2005, p. 136.

  67. 67.

    Obama, 2006, p. 10.

  68. 68.

    Obama, 2006, p. 26.

  69. 69.

    Obama, 2006, p. 181.

  70. 70.

    Frank, 2016, pp. 44–61 and 139–158.

  71. 71.

    Pollin and Wicks-Lim, 2015; Dube, 2013.

  72. 72.

    Sanders, 2017.

  73. 73.

    Harvey, 2013, p. 39. See also Kaboub, 2013, p. 59.

  74. 74.

    CIO News, 1944, p. 4.

  75. 75.

    Jameson, 2016, p. 12.

  76. 76.

    Jameson, 2016, pp. 66–159, 269–379 and 721.

  77. 77.

    Weller, 2017.

  78. 78.

    Snarr, 2011, p. 63.

  79. 79.

    Ely, 1893, p. 85.

  80. 80.

    Graham, 2017, p. 31.

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  1. Department of Economics, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD, USA

    Donald R. Stabile

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Stabile, D.R. (2018). The Decline and Revival of a Living Wage. In: Macroeconomic Policy and a Living Wage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01998-3_8

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