The United States’ partial and uneven recovery from the 2008 financial crisis calls for a new economic platform that would unite the employed and the unemployed, strengthen worker power, and point the way to a more democratic economy for the country as a whole. Two such policy proposals have recently been gaining traction on the left: a universal basic income, on the one hand, and a job guarantee on the other. As part of New Economy Week 2015, Dissent, Jacobin Magazine, and the New Economy Coalition brought together activists, journalists, and scholars to discuss these two proposals.
Resources
Democratic Banking For The 99%: Public Banks Stop Wall Street From Gambling With Our Money
Would you gamble away your rent money? How about your kids’ college fund, or the money you put aside for food and clothing? If that seems like a terrible idea, then why do cities, counties, and states gamble away our money by giving it to big Wall Street bankers, who throw it into risky derivatives and interest rate swaps? There’s a better way–and it’s one of our nation’s best-kept secrets. (This article originally appeared as part of New Economy Week 2015)
Acts of Collective Imagination: Notes From the Chief Policy Wonk at America’s Department of Arts and Culture
What if we gave everyone a universal basic income, and studied the adverse impacts of development before razing neighborhoods? The policy agenda of a national network you didn’t know existed. (From New Economy Week 2015)
Community Control: Organizing For Community Land Trusts In NYC
In this New Economy Week 2015 article, leaders from the New Economy Project share the origins and strategies of the New York City Community Land Initiative, a powerful coalition using every tactic at their disposal (including board games!) to expand affordable housing in NYC through community land trusts.
Acts of Collective Imagination: Notes From the Chief Policy Wonk at America’s Department of Arts and Culture
What if we gave everyone a universal basic income, and studied the adverse impacts of development before razing neighborhoods? The policy agenda of a national network you didn’t know existed. (From New Economy Week 2015)
Replacing FitzPatrick: How the Closure of a Nuclear Reactor Can Reduce Greenhouse Gasses and Radioactive Waste, while Creating Jobs and Supporting the Local Community
A white paper mapping out a just transition strategy for nuclear power plant communities and energy replacement scenarios. Concludes that the reactor's entire electricity output could be replaced by lower-cost, clean energy resources, and that worker and community transition support would be cost-effective.
Valuing Care by Valuing Care Workers
Improving care jobs requires reshaping the nation's understanding of what care work is, what it is worth, and how to pay for it. Care workers, as well as their advocates and unions, need to be connected to city and state minimum wage campaigns and to begin securing public and private resources to make higher wages for care workers a reality.
Getting to the Next System: Guideposts on the way to a new political economy
In this Next System Project second official report, project co-chair, and NEC co-founder, James Gustave Speth details the steps that must be taken to change the status quo of the political-economic system.
Action on Climate: A Practical Guide for Fiduciaries
This Toolkit is intended to help investors examine climate change from different angles.
Educate and Empower: Tools For Building Community Wealth
How do low-income communities learn to advance economically and build wealth? Low-income communities and communities of color, in challenging structural economic and social inequality, have historically grappled with tensions inherent to development. Who participates in, directs, and ultimately owns the economic-development process? In creating and sustaining new, inclusive economic institutions, how do community members cultivate and pass on skills, commitment and knowledge—especially among those who have long faced barriers to education and employment? And how should communities strike an appropriate balance between utilizing local knowledge and accessing outside expertise? This report draws on case studies of 11 different community economic development initiatives from across the United States to highlight a diverse set of powerful answers to these critical questions.
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