What is it about?
African-Americans (and other groups such as whites in de-industrialized zones) have long suffered from unemployment and underemployment. For half a century governments have responded with job programs. Said programs have proved ineffective. Martin Luther King understood that the answer to underemployment was for governments to be employers of last resort.
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Why is it important?
Debates rage over how to get jobs for urban African-Americans, not to mention whites in old industrial towns. Martin Luther King rightly showed that jobs programs do little to solve this problem. Instead, the government needs to be an employer of last resort.
Perspectives
As automation and creative destruction continue eliminating jobs, the state as an employer of last resort is needed to create employment when the market fails to create sufficient new employment. Significant social needs go unmet, thus providing no small measure of tasks to which governments as employers of last resort could address.
Jeffrey Sommers
Although Dr. King is not often remembered for his insights on economic policy, he undoubtedly should be. His proposal for guaranteed jobs would be a considerable step forward for the United States by recognizing that current racial, economic inequity is the direct result of past transgressions committed against African Americans.
Rachel Hegland
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: American Public Policy and Full Employment: The Imperative of Martin Luther King’s Political Economy in the 21st Century, SAGE Open, April 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/2158244018802674.
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