Ok so here's the sequel to my my post on some fascinating analysis and proposals for what I'm calling the Uber economy but 'liberal billionaire' Nick Hanauer and David Rolf refer to the 'On your own economy'
"This is the new “you’re on your own,” benefit-free, race-to-the-bottom reality for millions of American workers. And as more new innovative businesses and business models are invented, this process will only accelerate. As the sharing economy kicks into high gear, more and more Americans will become independent contractors activated at the touch of a button on an app, working for a fleet of employers. According to a 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, Americans born in the late Baby Boom have held around 12 jobs in adulthood. It’s possible that 30 years from now, the average American might well work for four or five or even more different employers in a single week. This hyper-nimble form of employment means the economy will likely be even more efficient in years to come, as workers are hired for very specific tasks of a highly limited duration. But a nation of independent contractors is a nation of workers without any of the benefits that defined the decent and dignified life that gave one reason to be optimistic about the future—a gross violation of the social contract that helped create the greatest economic expansion, the most dramatic increase in living standards, and the largest, most prosperous, most productive, and most secure middle class in human history."
http://www.democracyjournal.org/37/shared-security-shared-growth.php?page=all
Here was Part 1
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-like-nick.html
As I noted in Part 1 H&R are light years ahead of any discussion I've seen among intelligent liberals on the Uber or 'On your own' economy.
"Until now intelligent liberals have mostly tried to simply diagnose the problem-a la Joseph Stiglitz or Lawrence Summers. "
H&R actually have comprehensive solutions. They call for a 21st century social contract which includes:
"An economy based on micro-employment requires the accrual of micro-benefits, and a twenty-first-century sharing economy requires a twenty-first-century social contract that assures shared economic security and broad prosperity."
"This is the new “you’re on your own,” benefit-free, race-to-the-bottom reality for millions of American workers. And as more new innovative businesses and business models are invented, this process will only accelerate. As the sharing economy kicks into high gear, more and more Americans will become independent contractors activated at the touch of a button on an app, working for a fleet of employers. According to a 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, Americans born in the late Baby Boom have held around 12 jobs in adulthood. It’s possible that 30 years from now, the average American might well work for four or five or even more different employers in a single week. This hyper-nimble form of employment means the economy will likely be even more efficient in years to come, as workers are hired for very specific tasks of a highly limited duration. But a nation of independent contractors is a nation of workers without any of the benefits that defined the decent and dignified life that gave one reason to be optimistic about the future—a gross violation of the social contract that helped create the greatest economic expansion, the most dramatic increase in living standards, and the largest, most prosperous, most productive, and most secure middle class in human history."
http://www.democracyjournal.org/37/shared-security-shared-growth.php?page=all
Here was Part 1
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-like-nick.html
As I noted in Part 1 H&R are light years ahead of any discussion I've seen among intelligent liberals on the Uber or 'On your own' economy.
"Until now intelligent liberals have mostly tried to simply diagnose the problem-a la Joseph Stiglitz or Lawrence Summers. "
H&R actually have comprehensive solutions. They call for a 21st century social contract which includes:
"An economy based on micro-employment requires the accrual of micro-benefits, and a twenty-first-century sharing economy requires a twenty-first-century social contract that assures shared economic security and broad prosperity."
"We propose a new Shared Security System that endows every American worker with, first, a “Shared Security Account” in which to accrue the basic employment benefits necessary for a thriving middle class, and second, a new set of “Shared Security Standards” that complement and reinforce that account."
"One can think of the Shared Security Account as analogous to Social Security, but encompassing all of the employment benefits traditionally provided by a full-time salaried job. Shared Security benefits would be earned and accrued via automatic payroll deductions, regardless of the employment relationship, and, like Social Security, these benefits would be fully prorated, portable, and universal."
The SSS is both prorated and portable. Proration:
"The obvious solution to the explosion of part-time work—voluntary or otherwise—is to prorate the accrual of benefits on an hourly or equivalent basis. For example, if Zoe works 30 hours a week at the hotel, she should earn three-quarters of the benefits offered by a full-time 40-hour-a-week job; if she works 20 hours a week, she should earn half the benefits. There is no doubt that many employers push their employees into part-time work in order to avoid the added cost of paying any benefits at all. Proration would eliminate this perverse incentive and the economic distortions and inefficiencies that come with it."
"To be clear, proration is not a radical idea. Social Security and Medicare have always been prorated: Zoe’s employer pays half of her 15.3 percent combined Social Security and Medicare tax, regardless of how many hours she works. But all mandatory benefits that normally accrue to full-time employees on a daily basis—sick days, vacation days, health insurance, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, retirement matching, Social Security, and Medicare—should also accrue to part-time employees (hourly, salaried, or contract) and sharing-economy providers on a prorated hourly or equivalent basis."
Portability:
"Job-based benefits no longer make sense in an economy where fewer and fewer workers hold traditional jobs. This is why these accrued benefits must be fully portable, following the worker from job to job, or contract to contract. For example, paid vacation days that Zoe accrues at one employer could be carried over to her next, although the cost of paying for these days would come from funds banked in her Shared Security Account. Because benefits from multiple employers are pooled into the same account, portability and proration work together to provide workers with the full panoply of benefits, even within the flexible micro-employment environment of the sharing economy."
Also the SSS would have to be universal:
"In the new economy, a basic set of benefits and labor standards must be universal across all employers and all forms of employment, with few exceptions or exemptions. While there is much to recommend the innovations introduced by companies like Uber and TaskRabbit, they are currently exploiting gigantic loopholes in our social contract by transforming jobholders into independent contractors, thus stripping them of essential benefits. A robust set of mandatory universal benefits would put all employees and employers alike on an equal footing, while providing the economic security and certainty necessary for the middle class to thrive."
The SSS also calls for paid leave, a livable minimum wage, and overtime pay among other things. I like what they say about a livable minimum wage.
"The federal minimum wage should be raised to $15 an hour, indexed to inflation, and adjusted up or down geographically to account for substantial disparities in local cost of living."
Adjusting it geographically is very important. What has to be understood is that in places like Seattle, LA, and San Francisco, a $15 MW is in truth a lot less when you factor in the cost of living.
In NYC technically we have-I say we though I live on Long Island not NYC but we have the same MW-the MW is $8.75 but is under $4.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-minimum-wage-and-why-sumner-hates.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/05/more-on-las-new-high-minimum-wage-is-15.html
Ok. So if there is a programmatic manifesto for liberals it ought to be this. Again, I already bought Hanauer's book-one of them anyway.
http://www.amazon.com/Gardens-Democracy-American-Citizenship-Government-ebook/dp/B0061S3UMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434921050&sr=1-1&keywords=nick+hanauer&pebp=1434921060904&perid=189R61M0Z6XNXVW6GMZA
Rolf has one coming out about the $15 MW proposal. He's actually also in the Seattle Mayor's administration that passed $15 for Seattle.
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781620971130-0
Hopefully Democratic politicians-including those candidates vying to be as well as policymakers across the country will be brandishing copies of this post or the guys' books.
It certainly seems to at least point the way forward for the liberal discussion of future policy to get where we want to go.
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