Labor

It may be tempting to view the New York transit workers' strike as a local story. After all, the local narrative--the nation's largest city shut down at the whim of an arrogant and reckless union--is pretty compelling. But, in fact, the transit strike is part of a national phenomenon: In cities across the country, voters may cast ballots, but it's really the public employees who rule.

During the past 30 years, public-employee unions have largely won… more

Recession. Terrorism. Layoffs. What wage earner or job seeker in this economy wouldn't want a return to "Morning in America"? Remember that? The year was 1984, and Ronald Reagan was running for reelection under that slogan, declaring that the long night of Carter-era economic stagnation had ended. Americans agreed so overwhelmingly that Reagan won majorities in 49 states. Yet the very month of Reagan's landslide, the unemployment rate stood at a painful 7.2 percent.

Or how about "The Downsizing… more

As the Dow Jones industrial average peaked above 10,000 last week despite news of worsening consumer confidence and continuing job losses, the United States appears increasingly likely to return to the divisive politics of the 1990s' "jobless recovery." Then, extremely low interest rates drove money into stocks and brought about a largely paper economic recovery. Beyond Wall Street, jobs and wages stagnated. One result was a negative politics that even rejected a popular president fresh from a decisive military victory… more

The student demonstrations at Harvard this past spring, to persuade the university to provide a "living wage" for all of its workers, brought unprecedented publicity to a nationwide grass-roots effort to raise American living standards by raising American paychecks. After a generation in which liberalism has been linked with identity politics, mass immigration, environmentalism, and the defense of middle-class entitlements, the living wage campaign is reviving the moderate Left's dormant interest in the well-being of working people.

The initiative is… more