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Search - Old Assumption, New Realities: Ensuring Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century (West Coast Poverty Center Volume)

Old Assumption New Realities Ensuring Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century - West Coast Poverty Center Volume
Author: Robert D. Plotnick

The way Americans live and work has changed significantly since the creation of the Social Security Administration in 1935, but US social welfare policy has failed to keep up with these changes. The model of the male breadwinner-led nuclear family has given way to diverse and often complex family structures, more women in the workplace, and nont... more »raditional job arrangements. These new realities require us to reconsider whether mainstays of the old social safety net such as minimum wage or unemployment benefits can adequately address the new challenges American workers face. The contributors to Old Assumptions, New Realities identify the tensions between twentieth-century social policy and twenty-first century realities for working Americans and offer promising new reforms for ensuring social and economic security.

Old Assumptions, New Realities focuses on policy solutions for today s workers particularly low-skilled workers and low-income families. Contributor Jacob S. Hacker makes strong and timely arguments for universal health insurance and universal 401 (k) retirement accounts for people confronting such economic risks as unemployment, health emergencies, and income volatility. Michael Stoll argues that job training and workforce development programs, including career academies within schools, can mitigate the effects of declining wages caused by deindustrialization, technological changes, racial discrimination, and other forms of job displacement. Paul Osterman also sees publicly funded job training as a way for employers to stabilize prospects for their low-wage workers, and proposes that stronger unions and regulation of labor standards can only improve working conditions.

Michael Sherraden maintains that wealth-building accounts for children similar to state college savings plans and universal and progressive savings accounts for workers can be invaluable strategies for all workers, including the poorest. Scott Allard examines the fragmented delivery of social services and explores how community and nonprofit agencies can strengthen the safety net for low-income families. Recent advances in family and maternity leave notwithstanding, Jody Heymann underscores the potential for more extensive work-family policies to help the US remain competitive in a globalized economy. Finally, Jodi Sandfort suggests that the US can restructure the existing safety net via state-level reforms but only with a host of coordinated efforts, including better information to service providers, budget analyses, new funding sources, and oversight by intermediary service professionals.

Today s workers face risks that no one could have foreseen seventy-five years ago, and subsequent modifications of labor and family policies remain incompatible with twenty-first century life. Old Assumptions, New Realities picks up where current policies leave off by examining what s not working, why, and how the social safety net can be redesigned to work better. The book brings much-needed clarity to the process of creating viable policy solutions that benefit all working Americans.

ISBN-13: 9780871546982
ISBN-10: 0871546981
Publication Date: 1/31/2013
Pages: 272
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Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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Search - Old Assumption, New Realities: Ensuring Economic Security for Working Families in the 21st Century (West Coast Poverty Center Volume)

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