The Uber Effect? Polls Show a Majority of Americans Favor Job Guarantees

It could be 30 years of stagnant household income. Or it might be that so many Americans are now part-time, contract workers with no rights or benefits that a socio-economic tipping point has been reached.

But the fact that substantial majorities favor some sort of job guarantee suggests that the apparent frustration with perceived declines in the standard of  living is creating a reaction which will affect employers- and maybe even employees. JL

Bill Mitchell reports in his blog:

The majority of Americans (in the 99 per cent of the income distribution) believe that:1. The government ought to see that everyone who wants to can find a job (68 per cent). More specifically: 2. The government should provide jobs for everyone who cannot find a job in private employment (53 per cent).
It seems that the mainstream American is rather progressive. Who would have thought given that public opinion is being continually drowned out by the deafening shrieking from the conservative think tanks and their media bully boys. In March 2013, a research paper from Northwestern and Princeton academics – Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans – demonstrated the vastly different policy preferences held by high income Americans (in this case the top 1 per cent of the income distribution) relative to the general public. The research was motivated by the observation that the “wealthy exert more political influence than the less affluent do” and so if their preferences were not representative of American society in general then that would be “troubling for democratic policy making”. The authors find that the high income earners in the US are not only very active politically but hold ultra conservative views “concerning taxation, economic regulation, and especially social welfare programs” that are not remotely shared by the general public. The results might surprise people.

In June 2014, the unlikely sounding – Campaign for America’s Future – which is, in its own words, “the strategy center for the progressive movement”, collated the academic results and compared them to previous opinion polls in a Memo – The American Majority Is A Populist Majority.
Their opening statement was:

Of all the myths that circulate in Washington, perhaps none is more prevalent or intractable than the one that says that the United States is a center-right nation – and that majority public opinion lies somewhere between the views of conservative Democrats and those of less extreme Republicans.

However, they conclude that “Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans hold populist opinions on a broad range of economic and political issues—opinions that are often far removed from positions held by elites”, although the mainstream media really only pumps out the elite view.
The organisation Vox Media recently (June 16, 2015) brought together this research in one of their ‘Explainers’ – Rich people are jerks, explained. The graphic they produced by way of summary (reproduced below) is worth considering.

While many people vilify the idea of a Job Guarantee the majority of Americans (in the 99 per cent of the income distribution) believe that:
1. The government out to see to it that everyone who wants to work can find a job (68 per cent).
But, even more specifically:
2. The government should provide jobs for everyone who cannot find a job in private employment (53 per cent).
The weight of opposition (given the skewed access to the political process) to those propositions clearly comes from the elites in the US.
Proposition 1 means the majority of the US citizens believe in true full employment (government should ensure that everyone who wants to work can find a job) and Proposition 2 places the responsibility for the provision of those jobs firmly in the Government’s court.
These propositions are at the heart of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). They ensure that the population always has income security, which is essential for economic stability and provides mechanisms for achieving full employment and price stability.
So next time you read that the Job Guarantee is some wacky left-wing dream time concept think about these results.