The Audacity of Hope

tax code, should also be expanded and streamlined so more families can take advantage
of it.
To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, it’s also time to update the
existing system of unemployment insurance and trade adjustment assistance. In fact,
there are a slew of good ideas out there on how to create a more comprehensive system
of adjustment assistance. We could extend such assistance to service industries, create
flexible education accounts that workers could use to retrain, or provide retraining
assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they
lose their jobs. And in an economy where the job you lose often paid more than the new
job you gain, we could also try the concept of wage insurance, which provides 50
percent of the difference between a worker’s old wage and his new wage for anywhere
from one to two years.
Finally, to help workers gain higher wages and better benefits, we need once again to
level the playing field between organized labor and employers. Since the early 1980s,
unions have been steadily losing ground, not just because of changes in the economy
but also because today’s labor laws—and the make-up of the National Labor Relations
Board—have provided workers with very little protection. Each year, more than twenty
thousand workers are fired or lose wages simply for trying to organize and join unions.
That needs to change. We should have tougher penalties to prevent employers from
firing or discriminating against workers involved in organizing efforts. Employers
should have to recognize a union if a majority of employees sign authorization cards
choosing the union to represent them. And federal mediation should be available to help
an employer and a new union reach agreement on a contract within a reasonable amount
of time.
Business groups may argue that a more unionized workforce will rob the U.S. economy
of flexibility and its competitive edge. But it’s precisely because of a more competitive
global environment that we can expect unionized workers to want to cooperate with
employers—so long as they are getting their fair share of higher productivity.
Just as government policies can boost workers’ wages without hurting the
competitiveness of U.S. firms, so can we strengthen their ability to retire with dignity.
We should start with a commitment to preserve Social Security’s essential character and
shore up its solvency. The problems with the Social Security trust fund are real but
manageable. In 1983, when facing a similar problem, Ronald Reagan and House
Speaker Tip O’Neill got together and shaped a bipartisan plan that stabilized the system
for the next sixty years. There’s no reason we can’t do the same today.
With respect to the private retirement system, we should acknowledge that definedbenefit
pension plans have been declining, but insist that companies fulfill any
outstanding promises to their workers and retirees. Bankruptcy laws should be amended
to move pension beneficiaries to the front of the creditor line so that companies can’t
just file for Chapter 11 to stiff workers. Moreover, new rules should force companies to
properly fund their pension funds, in part so taxpayers don’t end up footing the bill.
And if Americans are going to depend on defined-contribution plans like 401(k)s to
supplement Social Security, then the government should step in to make them more
broadly available to all Americans and more effective in encouraging savings. Former