From Kelly Girls to Permatemps
The temporary worker industry has thrived by convincing business owners that workers are “liabilities” to the bottom line who can and should be easily replaced.
Inaugural flunks education history, limits aspirations
In an address that otherwise reprised many of the noblest principles from this country's history, President Obama's remarks on education offered only a bleak vision of schools as training grounds for employers. Neither the principle that a good education is an essential requisite for developing active citizens nor the idea that education has intrinsic value independent of its utility in the job market made it into the speech.
“Class Dismissed”
An interview with Professor John Marsh on the limits of education as a tool for eliminating inequality and poverty in the United States. Other responses, Marsh says, are more effective, including redistribution through higher wages or social programs.
“Stayin’ Alive” in the 1970s
A History for the Future interview with labor historian Jefferson Cowie on the death of the New Deal order and the rise of working class conservatism over the course of the 1970s.
Don’t be fooled by “common sense”
Politicians have used and abused the term “common sense” for a long time. A discussion of the history of the term and why appeals to common sense need to be scrutinized carefully.