Dollars & Sense articles from July 1995

Dollars & Sense archives from July 1995

Can we still win the war on poverty? (includes related article)
July 1, 1995... John John F. Kennedy declared a war on poverty. Thirty years later our political leaders have begun a war against the poor. During his 1992 campaign Bill Clinton pledged to "end welfare as we know it," and vowed to impose a two-year time limit on...

Less is more: in France, the future of unemployment lies in leisure.
July 1, 1995... Can the problem of unemployment be solved by everyone getting a job? And should it be? Reflecting on the French, and more broadly, the European experience, it seems that we have to face the prospect that people will work less and less. European...

Equitable universalism. (overhauling the welfare state)
July 1, 1995... To finance an overhaul of work and leisure, the welfare state would need to be revamped, since it is experiencing financial strains all over the world. As the welfare state developed in Western Europe after World War II, two languages emerged...

Stakeholders vs. stockholders: a Pennsylvania miracle.
July 1, 1995... With free trade triumphant in GATT and NAFTA, today it is easier than ever for investors, corporate raiders, and their mobile capital to shop internationally for the highest yielding investments. The loss of a few hundred jobs in Scranton, PA, or...

The case of Moneymaker, Inc. (corporate raid)
July 1, 1995... Let's say you're the chief executive officer of a large company, called MoneyMaker. You are elected by, and legally beholden to, the stockholders who own the company and whose main concern is for you to increase the value of their stock....

Co-ops, ESOPs, and worker participation. (cooperatives, employee stock ownership plan)
July 1, 1995... In 1991 the 130 employees of Market Forge, an industrial cooking equipment manufacturer in Everett, Massachusetts, were threatened with loss of their jobs. The Chicago-based conglomerate that owned the 95 year-old plant intended to sell it to a...

From gang members to union members?
July 1, 1995... The contemporary labor movement does not know how to relate to youth. This alienation became painfully clear when "Frontlash," the AFL-CIO's youth arm, decided to focus its efforts around building a boycott of goods from the People's Republic of...

Bare minimum: a too-low minimum wage keeps all wages down.
July 1, 1995... In February, President Clinton proposed raising the legal minimum wage by 90 cents in two steps, to $5.15 per hour by 1997. This was widely seen as a political ploy, since the Administration stonewalled an increase when it had a congressional...

A maximum wage: how much is enough?
July 1, 1995... Whether it's the salaries of major league baseball players, CEOs, or software entrepreneurs that are at issue, this question is arising with increasing urgency lately. Far from a product of fleeting media fancy, the current interest in excessive...

The declining dollar: who wins and loses?
July 1, 1995... Between January and May of 1995 the U.S. dollar tumbled down, losing more than 10% of its value compared to the German mark and to an average of 19 major currencies, and falling by more than one-quarter versus the Japanese yen. Such changes can...

Cinderella Goes to Market.
July 1, 1995... Why did state socialism break its promise of gender equality? And, since the lifting of the Iron Curtain, why have East European women fared so poorly? Can their deteriorating circumstances be chalked up to the unhealthy legacy of communism, or...

Gender Politics and Post-Communism.
July 1, 1995... Why did state socialism break its promise of gender equality? And, since the lifting of the Iron Curtain, why have East European women fared so poorly? Can their deteriorating circumstances be chalked up to the unhealthy legacy of communism, or...

Democratic Reform and the Position of Women in Transitional Economies.
July 1, 1995... Why did state socialism break its promise of gender equality? And, since the lifting of the Iron Curtain, why have East European women fared so poorly? Can their deteriorating circumstances be chalked up to the unhealthy legacy of communism, or...

Earth Follies: Coming to Feminist Terms with the Global Environmental Crisis.
July 1, 1995... Everyday images of environmental problems often take physical forms - chemical spills in Alaska, deforestation in Brazil, third-world dumping in Ghana. Both scholars and journalists frequently see the impact and scope of such visible disasters as...

How to pare down the Pentagon.
July 1, 1995... George Bush and Bill Clinton have squandered the "peace dividend" that many expected with the Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the Cold War. Given that the major political parties agree on a hawkish military posture, we cannot hope for...