Building Shared Prosperity

Lawrence Mishel and Nancy Cleeland, Economic Policy Institute

America needs more than a new set of economic policies; it needs a new purpose for economic policy. The mission before us is to build an economy of shared prosperity.

Prosperity Ideas

  • Pass the Health Care for America Plan
  • Raise the Social Security earnings cap so the system draws revenue from 90% of all wages
  • Augment Social Security with Guaranteed Retirement Accounts funded by employer and worker contributions, with a guaranteed payout after retirement
  • Create millions of jobs and fuel economic growth through federal investment in infrastructure, schools, and broadband build-out
  • Revitalize the manufacturing sector with a comprehensive green jobs strategy
  • Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
  • Enforce and improve laws governing wages, hours, overtime premiums, and occupational health and safety
  • Raise the minimum wage to match half the average wage
  • Set a national goal of full employment
  • Invest in education, job assistance, and innovation
  • Include provisions for enforceable labor rights in all future trade agreements
  • Enforce current trade policies
  • Eliminate tax incentives that favor overseas investments
  • Consider instituting value-added taxes that favor exports over imports
  • Promote a more stable and equitable global financial system

 

Excerpted from Thinking Big: Progressive Ideas for a New Era, our shared agenda for Congress and the Administration.

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