Word: newsweek
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...times, the magazine's agenda for getting America working again appears remarkably oblivious of important objections to its proposals--objections that emasculate the program's effectiveness. When suggesting a lowered minimum wage for workers under 20 years old, for example, Newsweek overlooks existing exceptions to the minimum wage law that permit many restaurants and fast found chains, typically major employers of youth, to pay "sub-minimum" wages for high school students. Instead of the prevailing $3.35 an hour, for many teenagers minimum wages brings $2.86 an hour. Any substantial reduction in the guaranteed wage would lead many teenagers to decide...
...NEWSWEEK VISION seems equally myopic in discussing foreign trade. Though careful not to endorse trade restrictions Newsweek does recommend governmental policies designed to encourage U.S. exports. But since the unwritten rule of international trade seems to be that "Any advantage you try to impose, we impose more of," such policies would probably fail to achieve any lasting improvement in the U.S. trade balance, would not create jobs, and would risk creating an international environment conducive to projectionist paranoia...
...Newsweek's policy of immigration restrictions that crack down on illegal aliens would also do very little to decrease unemployment. Illegal aliens and migrants almost always work at jobs that American citizens are unwilling to take. This fall, for example, the state of Vermont contacted unemployed residents and encouraged them to work as apple-pickers--jobs traditionally filled by migrant workers from the Dominican Republic. Responses were almost uniformly negative. As one man put it. "There's no way I'm gonna work for under $8 an hour...
Some aspects of Newsweek's agenda show little sensitivity to how the proposals will affect workers personally. The employee whose salary decreases as a result of a minimum wage reduction, for instance, would suffer an incalculable loss of self-esteem, knowing his employer measures his worth in terms of the legally allowable minimum. Imagine, too, the feelings of those employed in the Works Progress Administration who, under the Newsweek plan, would work to repair the American infrastructure of highways, bridges, sewers, ports and dams that support the nation's commerce. Presumably by threatening to deny unemployment benefits, the government would...
...everything in the agenda is without merit, however In particular, the Newsweek editorial strongly encourages, both at the governmental and private levels, education for high technology fields and extensive job training for many different vocations. As our modes of production grow increasingly automated, the need for theorists, engineers, and operators becomes much more pressing. Such investment in human skills--"human capital"--would help workers enormously as they enter a world requiring advanced technical skills...