Tackling Unemployment: The Legislative Dynamics of the Employment Act of 1946

Abstract

Growing up in the Upper Ohio Valley, where the local economy had until recent decades depended on mining and steel, provided me with a rough education in the vagaries of employment. The boom time of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to decades when, for many, unemployment always lurked around the corner. The book is dedicated to my parents, Charles Terry Wasem and Jessie McCullough Wasem, who lived most of their lives in eastern Ohio. I would further acknowledge my brother, Terry Denton Wasem, and my lifelong friend Jackie Hawk Dunlap, both of whom live in eastern Ohio today, for their moral support as I was writing this book. The kernel of this book was a dissertation begun during the recession of 1982, the last time U.S. unemployment had reached 10 percent before it briefly topped out at that number in November 2009. The Institute for Social Research's Center for Political Studies at the University of Michigan funded much of my graduate studies and enabled me to work with many outstanding researchers. The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum also provided research funding, and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies gave tuition support. Considerable credit is due to my dissertation chair, Jerome M. Clubb, and committee members Maris A. Vinovskis, John E. Jackson, and Terrence J. McDonald for holding me to high academic standards while providing the encouragement necessary to complete the dissertation in 1989. Fast-forward two decades to 2009, when the nation was in the midst of the Great Recession. Joyce Vialet and her husband, John Vialet, became the catalysts for this book. Joyce had been my mentor in immigration policy at the Congressional Research Service and recalled that I was completing a dissertation on employment policy when we began working together in the late 1980s. Had it not been for the Vialets' interest in discussing this subject during a stormy weekend in 2009 at Newport, Rhode Island, this book may never have been written. Soon all of my free time was devoted to researching the Employment Act of 1946 anew. As we walked our dogs together, neighbors Tad and Susan Cantril guided me to the public opinion data from the 1940s that formed the basis of Chapter 3. Survey research experts (and former classmates from the University of Michigan) Celinda Lake, Barbara Smela, and Fran Featherston provided valuable comments on that chapter. Labor economists Linda Levine and Gerry Mayer, as well as Joyce, Barbara, and Fran, reviewed the first draft of the manuscript.

Why Has Labor Not Demanded Guaranteed Employment?

“…It was in this anti-government climate that the last attempt to strengthen the government's commitment to full employment was made in the U.S. The Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, commonly known as Humphrey-Hawkins, was originally intended to increase the government's commitment to full employment (Wasem 2013). However, concern over inflation became the primary argument against the bill (Ginsburg 1983, 70), and it was altered to provide government with a dual mandate-to attain both full employment and price stability (Wasem 2013).…”

“…The Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978, commonly known as Humphrey-Hawkins, was originally intended to increase the government's commitment to full employment (Wasem 2013). However, concern over inflation became the primary argument against the bill (Ginsburg 1983, 70), and it was altered to provide government with a dual mandate-to attain both full employment and price stability (Wasem 2013). Alarm over government debt was deployed to generate a commitment to a balanced budget in the final bill (Harvey 1989, 111), and the guaranteed employment provisions were weakened such that the bill would have no impact on the government's employment policies (Ginsburg 1983, 76).…”

Nominal (Im)Balances of the National Economy: The Construction of the National Income and Products Accounts System as a Macroeconomic Infrastructure

“…In 1944, Eccles and his assistant, Alvin Hansen, asked Colm to write a white paper on how to ensure full employment after the war. In August, Colm brought together a study group around his draft (Wasem 2013). The group consisted of those Currie had recruited from Hansen's fiscal policy seminar at Harvard in the late 1930s (Sandilands 2002: 224).…”

Las relaciones económicas y políticas entre Estados Unidos de América y China a la luz del concepto de unipolarismo condicionado

“…Dos años más tarde se firma el acuerdo para promover el libre comercio mediante la reducción de los aranceles y la eliminación de las barreras al comercio internacional, Acuerdo General sobre Aranceles Aduaneros y Comercio (GATT, por sus siglas en inglés), antecedente de la actual Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC). Ese mismo año se lanza el Programa Europeo de Recuperación (Plan Marshall), y también se firma la Employment Act, que incluía recortes de impuestos, gastos compensatorios, créditos fiscales (Wasem, 2013). Hasta la década de 1970 los sucesivos gobiernos siguen ese modelo, pero el ritmo de crecimiento declina, hasta transformarse en recesión en 1970 y en balanza comercial negativa en 1971 (United States Census, 2017a).…”