Karen Kornbluh

The Joy of Flex

Articles — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

A generation or more ago, it would have been impossible to envision the life of the American worker as it is lived today. A flood of women into the workforce has fundamentally changed the face of employment, largely for the better. Families are better able to increase their household income, and companies have benefited from the ability to tap female talent. But at home, working Americans have a dwindling amount of time to spend with their families. The parent who was home in the afternoon when kids came back from school, or cared for family members -- young or old… more

Running Faster to Stay in Place

Workforce and Family — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Trying to make sense of the steady stream of economic news can be frustrating. Is the economy getting better or worse? The news seems to change weekly and, depending on what is measured, can seem bleak or sunny. Wages are stagnant but productivity is up. The unemployment rate declines but so does labor force participation.

We can't even begin to understand how America is faring economically unless we first establish how its families are doing -- how much they're earning and how many hours they must work to earn this income.

We have set out here to examine the number… more

Win-Win Flexibility -- A Policy Proposal

Workforce and Family — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Today fully 70 percent of families with children are headed by two working parents or by an unmarried working parent. The "traditional family" of the breadwinner and homemaker has been replaced by the "juggler family," in which no one is home fulltime. Two-parent families are working 10 more hours a week than in 1979.

To be decent parents, caregivers, and members of their communities, workers now need greater flexibility than they once did. Yet good part-time or flex-time jobs remain rare....

For the complete document, please see the attached PDF version.

Rethinking Domestic Policy

Communications — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 03:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
02/07/2005 - 12:02pm

Summary of Remarks

The second panel of the Real State of the Union, "Rethinking Domestic Policy" was moderated by Morton Mondracke, executive editor of Roll Call. The discussion focused on fundamental problems at the core of American domestic policy, including asset management, health care, and improving standards for all Americans.

Ray Boshara, Director of New America's Asset Building Program, led off the discussion by focusing on the "ownership society." Mr. Boshara defined the current economic social status in the United States as one in which only the upper half of society has access to assets, whereas the lower half is shut out of ownership. While Boshara agrees that having an ownership society is beneficial, Americans need to ensure the right progressive tools to ensure equal opportunities. With progressive tools in place, benefits include national savings, productivity gains, and more engaged American citizens who will help shoulder our national debt and social security in the future.

Michael Calabrese, Vice President at New America focused on the problems of the healthcare system in the United States, which hurt productivity gains. He stressed the importance of universal, mandatory health care coverage, regardless of employment status. Mr. Calabrese also said that subsidies for coverage should be individual based, rather than job based. Currently, companies spend around 1/3 of their overall spending on healthcare costs. This healthcare strategy of continuous coverage with an incremental approach would reduce these costs and limit tax exclusion. This healthcare plan has bipartisan support.

Karen Kornbluh, Director of New America's Work and Family Program addressed the rising phenomenon of "juggler families," with 2 working parents or single parents who work. She emphasized that policies haven't changed to reflect new realities of the workplace and that globalization places more pressure on these families. These parents, already disadvantaged, are forced to work impossibly long hours in order to get ahead, negatively impacting our children. Furthermore, these families have difficulties when one parent switches employment or opts to work part-time, because their healthcare plans are not transferable from one job to another. Because of this opportunity gap, Kornbluh proposed solutions including "skill side" investment strategies to benefit children, universal social insurance for families (including health care and pension plans), and enabling flexibility to balance work and family obligations.

Maya MacGuineas, Director or New America's Fiscal Policy Program, focused on tax reform and revenue-neutral ways to improve the tax system. She said the payroll tax was highly regressive and led to a decrease in jobs. MacGuineas proposed eliminating the payroll tax and replacing it with a consumption tax which would enable private and public savings increases. MacGuineas emphasized that taxing corporate entities to increase revenue was the wrong approach for the era of globalization. She suggests adopting the budget to changing health care, education, and other demands. MacGuineas also highlighted the statistic that Americans pay $8 of taxes for each elderly person for every $1 spent on an individual child. She posited that savings from tax reform could be invested in human development.

Synopsis written by Joanna Lederman, Research Associate at the New America Foundation.

Tackling Taxes

Communications — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/30/2004 - 12:11pm

Tax reform is one of the Administration's top agenda items, but little is known about what their tax proposal will look like. What should the goals of tax reform be? How do we determine the winners and losers? Can fairness and inefficiency be balanced? How likely is it that tax reform will pass?

The New America Foundation's Fiscal Policy and Work & Family Programs brought together a panel of experts with varying perspectives to discuss the goals, prospects for and effects of different types of reforms.

Leaving Women Behind

Articles — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

President George W. Bush has framed his domestic agenda in recent speeches as a response to women's economic security concerns. In fact, in the president's "Ownership Society," women would be less -- not more -- economically secure.

The president's nomination acceptance speech contained a direct appeal to working moms. He offered women a post-"era-of-big-government-is-dead" message about putting government on the side of families: "The times in which we live and work are changing dramatically...Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives, and in one of the most dramatic shifts our society has seen, two-thirds of all moms also… more

America's Promise in A New Century

adminn — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0400

FROM: Karen Kornbluh SUBJECT: America's Promise in A New Century DATE: August 6, 2004

Americans are concerned as they have not been since 1992 about the future of their way of life in a global economy. They sense that their kids may be part of the first generation that does worse than its parents and they don't understand how this can be so when they are "working hard and playing by the rules."

… more

Economic Opportunity and Values

Communications — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 12:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/15/2004 - 12:00pm

The recent political discussion of the "middle class squeeze" has emphasized themes of both economic opportunity and values. This event delved more deeply in the policies that address the stresses on modern families, as New America's Work & Family Program presented its third event in a series entitled "The Stresses on 21st Century Families."

This event series provided a venue for discussing the current state of American families, including their need for increased workplace flexibility to balance work and family commitments as well as new policy approaches for addressing the changing needs of working families.

Why Dad Can't 'Have it All'

Workforce and Family — Sun, 20 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Father’s Day holds few surprises. A gift from the kids-usually a bad tie-and dinner with the family. Fatherhood itself, however, has undergone dramatic changes over the past few decades as Dads have taken on far more responsibility at home and, in many ways, changed the very definition of Father. The rest of the world has yet to catch up with the new Dad. As a result, even in 2004, too many fathers must still choose between being good breadwinners and good parents -- when they’d like to be both.

In 1960, Dads in 70 percent of all families with… more

It's The Family Budget... And Values, Stupid

Workforce and Family — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Today, Senator John Kerry announced new after-school and child care tax credit initiatives. His speech is part of a renewed focus on easing the "middle class squeeze." Yesterday, Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced a bill guaranteeing employees paid time off for their own or a family member's illness.

The emphasis on families and the pressures on them is exactly right. American families are experiencing a "family budget shock" as a result of three reinforcing trends: stagnating incomes, increasing fixed costs and declining benefit coverage. These reform proposals directly address the family's bottom line and the level of care… more