Frank Stricker - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Frank Stricker
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
There was virtually no federal spending to counteract five major depressions or substantial unemp... more There was virtually no federal spending to counteract five major depressions or substantial unemployment in between. Unemployed people received almost no public or private assistance, and they were the target of nasty stereotypes. This chapter analyzes those who promoted negative views, including classical economists who claimed that unregulated markets tended to produce full employment, and charity organization leaders like Josephine Shaw Lowell who believed that poor people needed to be disciplined. The chapter also discusses defenders of the working class, including economist John Commons and reformer Jacob Coxey, who wanted public works for the unemployed. Over time more policy-makers gained a compassionate and scientific comprehension of unemployment, but federal policy in 1920 was not very different from what it had been in 1880.
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
Labor History, Sep 1, 1990
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2010
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
Wartime deficit spending brought truly full employment, but millions of women were pushed out of ... more Wartime deficit spending brought truly full employment, but millions of women were pushed out of blue-collar jobs afterward. Business leaders and conservatives defeated a full-employment bill in 1946. Capital flight, urban deindustrialization, and a double recession in the late 1950s destroyed many, especially black, communities. Under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, liberal Keynesian economists used tax cuts and deficit spending to promote more economic growth and full employment. Large-scale spending on the Vietnam War followed. Unemployment stayed below 4 percent for four years, but millions were still jobless. Some of them joined the uprisings of black people that rocked American cities. Dissenting experts realized that the government undercounted unemployment. Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty focused too much on fixing poor people and not enough on creating jobs for them. Later, some liberals concluded that economic growth and poverty programs could not bring real full employment. Direct job creation was essential. One such effort was the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).
The History Teacher, May 1, 1992
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 1988
... in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the California State Uni... more ... in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the California State University, Dominguez Hills. ... See also Thomas Haskell, "Professionalism versus Capitalism: RH Tawney, Emile Durkheim, and CS Peirce on the Disinterestedness of Professional ...
Labor History, 1983
Page 1. AFFLUENCE FOR WHOM?—ANOTHER LOOK AT PROSPERITY AND THE WORKING CLASSES IN THE 1920s By FR... more Page 1. AFFLUENCE FOR WHOM?—ANOTHER LOOK AT PROSPERITY AND THE WORKING CLASSES IN THE 1920s By FRANK STRICKER* Our picture of economic life in the United States in the 1920s has been remarkably constant. ...
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
The chapter sifts through common explanations for excessive unemployment: the unemployed are too ... more The chapter sifts through common explanations for excessive unemployment: the unemployed are too lazy and too picky; untrained and unskilled, they are undesirable hires; employers discriminate against African Americans and other minorities; immigrants take all the jobs; as part of globalization, employers have sent many jobs abroad; robots take too many jobs; high wages mean that some employers cannot afford to hire; high taxes limit the money employers have for hiring. Some of these factors contribute to more unemployment in the whole economy and for special groups. But the chapter concludes that the decisive reasons why the United States rarely has full employment are found in the way unregulated capitalism thrives on a labor surplus, and in business leaders, conservative and neoliberal politicians, and economists who resist government job creation programs.
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effectiv... more The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effective. Rich people and business owners often do other things with new money than create good jobs. Government should directly create jobs in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. An umbrella program, such as the proposed Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, must guarantee jobs for all and especially for people in distressed communities. Specific focuses include infrastructure repair, more subsidies for weatherizing low-income dwellings and enlarging Head Start, money for wind farms, affordable housing, and bolstering the Affordable Care Act, which has been a job creator. The chapter uses opinion surveys and analyzes Democratic and Republican values to weigh support levels for programs that guarantee full employment.
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 1993
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
Jobs recovered slowly under George W. Bush after the 2001 recession. Growth was boosted by easy c... more Jobs recovered slowly under George W. Bush after the 2001 recession. Growth was boosted by easy credit and a housing boom, but the seeds of the Great Recession were being sown as working-class incomes stayed down. The system crashed in 2008 and unemployment soared. Barack Obama organized deficit spending and job creation, while the Federal Reserve injected trillions of dollars into the economy. Republican resistance and Democratic timidity meant that the federal stimulus was too little by half. The top 10 percent of households recovered faster than the bottom 50 percent. This chapter includes stories of individuals struggling with the loss of jobs and housing. It describes long-term changes that intensify employee insecurity. More jobs are non-union and more employees receive no benefits, face arbitrary schedules, and are classified as independent contractors.
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
The labor force ballooned as more women, immigrants, and baby boomers sought work. Plant shutdown... more The labor force ballooned as more women, immigrants, and baby boomers sought work. Plant shutdowns were common and corporations “downsized” work forces. Real wages began a long decline. Owing to spending on Vietnam and soaring oil prices, inflation surged. Richard Nixon tried government wage-and-price controls and then recession and high unemployment. But inflation stayed up. This was “stagflation.” Some authorities decided that recessions had to be harsher. The Paul Volcker-Ronald Reagan recession of 1981 reduced inflation but eliminated millions of good jobs. Unemployment never fell below 5 percent. Unemployment did not fall below 5 percent before a new recession, which occurred during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Most economists believed that low inflation required permanently high unemployment; their view was labeled NAIRU—the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment. The late 1990s were a surprise. Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan and President Bill Clinton helped to bring low inflation and low unemployment at the same time. Real wages increased more than at any time since the early ’70s.
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
Journal of Social History, Sep 1, 1982
simultaneously with the announcement of the five dollar figure. The part of the amount that was w... more simultaneously with the announcement of the five dollar figure. The part of the amount that was wages was in line with prevailing wage scales in Detroit at the time. If the rest was seen as sharing in profits, then the company could argue that this part was a privilege, not a right, so that it could justifiably investigate the private lives of its workers to determine if they were earning this privilege. The author goes into elaborate detail on labor conditions in the Ford Motor Company both before and after the five-dollar day, and on the work of the Sociological Department. He is highly ciritcal of the department for trying to impose "middle-class values" (cleanliness appears to be one of them) on Ford workers, but he nowhere suggests what other values might have been substituted. There are also detailed accounts of the efforts of the Ford Motor Company to "Americanize" the large number of immigrant workers it employed, of the activities of the American Protective League during World War I, and of the strong anti-union stance taken by Ford and the automobile industry generally. These episodes demonstrate that the subsequent performance of Harry Bennett and the Ford Service Department was essentially an intensification of existing practice. The author's conclusion is that the Ford experiment of profit-sharing, paternalism, and welfare capitalism failed, and he makes a convincing case. He ends his story in 1921, when the abandonment of the policy was signalized in the replacement of the Sociological Department by the Service Department. Harry Bennett was not yet on the scene, but what he was to represent was presaged by this change. The book appears overloaded with detail, to the point that what the author is trying to say is sometimes obscured. There are some very interesting personalities in this phase of the Ford Motor Company's history-John R. Lee, Dean Samual Marquis, Charles E. Sorensen-but here they are just names. They do not come through as living people. Nor is there any sense of the drama of the announcement of the fivedollar day. Nevertheless, this is a useful contribution to the history of the motor vehicle industry.
International Labor and Working-class History, 1981
The Westcoast Association of Marxist Historians (WAMH) was formed in the Fall of 1979 in Los Ange... more The Westcoast Association of Marxist Historians (WAMH) was formed in the Fall of 1979 in Los Angeles. Most of us were involved in the renewal of critical, radical, and Marxist perspectives in historical scholarship, which was stimulated by revolutionary liberation movements in the Third World and the radical movements that emerged in the United States in the 1960s. We felt the need to come together to share ideas and give one another critical support. We aimed first to address ourselves to the important issues facing radical and Marxist scholars in all disciplines, and second, to connect our work as scholars to current issues and struggles. To accomplish these aims, WAMH has held forums every month and publishes a newsletter every other month. Forums have focused on working-class culture in the United States, feudalism in the Third World, Hollywood and the Cold War, and revolutionary strategies in Mexico today. Recently we held forums on race and class in the United States, the legacy of Walter Rodney, and the rightwing attack on reproductive rights. We also sponsored talks by E.P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. WAMH also runs a Works-Shop, in which members read and criticize one another's work in progress. WAMH's membership is not limited to historians and academics. We feel strongly the need to breach the artificial lines among disciplines and the chasm between scholarship and activism. We have worked against U.S. intervention in El Salvador and for a citizen-controlled police review board in Los Angeles. We are working with £7 Foro del Pueblo, a Latino community newspaper in Los Angeles. We are planning a series of radio programs-historical perspectives on current struggles. In September we are holding a weekend conference, taught by members of the Popular Economics Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is designed as a fast course in economics and the current crisis for activists. In February of 1982 we will co-sponsor the Union of Radical Political Economists' regional conference in Los Angeles. Every two months our newsletter reaches over a thousand readers; although the bulk of the readership is in California, the newsletter is mailed to scholars around the world. It includes political statements, reviews of books that challenge
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
There was virtually no federal spending to counteract five major depressions or substantial unemp... more There was virtually no federal spending to counteract five major depressions or substantial unemployment in between. Unemployed people received almost no public or private assistance, and they were the target of nasty stereotypes. This chapter analyzes those who promoted negative views, including classical economists who claimed that unregulated markets tended to produce full employment, and charity organization leaders like Josephine Shaw Lowell who believed that poor people needed to be disciplined. The chapter also discusses defenders of the working class, including economist John Commons and reformer Jacob Coxey, who wanted public works for the unemployed. Over time more policy-makers gained a compassionate and scientific comprehension of unemployment, but federal policy in 1920 was not very different from what it had been in 1880.
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
Labor History, Sep 1, 1990
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2010
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
Wartime deficit spending brought truly full employment, but millions of women were pushed out of ... more Wartime deficit spending brought truly full employment, but millions of women were pushed out of blue-collar jobs afterward. Business leaders and conservatives defeated a full-employment bill in 1946. Capital flight, urban deindustrialization, and a double recession in the late 1950s destroyed many, especially black, communities. Under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, liberal Keynesian economists used tax cuts and deficit spending to promote more economic growth and full employment. Large-scale spending on the Vietnam War followed. Unemployment stayed below 4 percent for four years, but millions were still jobless. Some of them joined the uprisings of black people that rocked American cities. Dissenting experts realized that the government undercounted unemployment. Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty focused too much on fixing poor people and not enough on creating jobs for them. Later, some liberals concluded that economic growth and poverty programs could not bring real full employment. Direct job creation was essential. One such effort was the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).
The History Teacher, May 1, 1992
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 1988
... in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the California State Uni... more ... in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the California State University, Dominguez Hills. ... See also Thomas Haskell, "Professionalism versus Capitalism: RH Tawney, Emile Durkheim, and CS Peirce on the Disinterestedness of Professional ...
Labor History, 1983
Page 1. AFFLUENCE FOR WHOM?—ANOTHER LOOK AT PROSPERITY AND THE WORKING CLASSES IN THE 1920s By FR... more Page 1. AFFLUENCE FOR WHOM?—ANOTHER LOOK AT PROSPERITY AND THE WORKING CLASSES IN THE 1920s By FRANK STRICKER* Our picture of economic life in the United States in the 1920s has been remarkably constant. ...
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
The chapter sifts through common explanations for excessive unemployment: the unemployed are too ... more The chapter sifts through common explanations for excessive unemployment: the unemployed are too lazy and too picky; untrained and unskilled, they are undesirable hires; employers discriminate against African Americans and other minorities; immigrants take all the jobs; as part of globalization, employers have sent many jobs abroad; robots take too many jobs; high wages mean that some employers cannot afford to hire; high taxes limit the money employers have for hiring. Some of these factors contribute to more unemployment in the whole economy and for special groups. But the chapter concludes that the decisive reasons why the United States rarely has full employment are found in the way unregulated capitalism thrives on a labor surplus, and in business leaders, conservative and neoliberal politicians, and economists who resist government job creation programs.
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effectiv... more The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effective. Rich people and business owners often do other things with new money than create good jobs. Government should directly create jobs in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. An umbrella program, such as the proposed Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, must guarantee jobs for all and especially for people in distressed communities. Specific focuses include infrastructure repair, more subsidies for weatherizing low-income dwellings and enlarging Head Start, money for wind farms, affordable housing, and bolstering the Affordable Care Act, which has been a job creator. The chapter uses opinion surveys and analyzes Democratic and Republican values to weigh support levels for programs that guarantee full employment.
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 1993
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
Jobs recovered slowly under George W. Bush after the 2001 recession. Growth was boosted by easy c... more Jobs recovered slowly under George W. Bush after the 2001 recession. Growth was boosted by easy credit and a housing boom, but the seeds of the Great Recession were being sown as working-class incomes stayed down. The system crashed in 2008 and unemployment soared. Barack Obama organized deficit spending and job creation, while the Federal Reserve injected trillions of dollars into the economy. Republican resistance and Democratic timidity meant that the federal stimulus was too little by half. The top 10 percent of households recovered faster than the bottom 50 percent. This chapter includes stories of individuals struggling with the loss of jobs and housing. It describes long-term changes that intensify employee insecurity. More jobs are non-union and more employees receive no benefits, face arbitrary schedules, and are classified as independent contractors.
University of Illinois Press eBooks, May 15, 2020
The labor force ballooned as more women, immigrants, and baby boomers sought work. Plant shutdown... more The labor force ballooned as more women, immigrants, and baby boomers sought work. Plant shutdowns were common and corporations “downsized” work forces. Real wages began a long decline. Owing to spending on Vietnam and soaring oil prices, inflation surged. Richard Nixon tried government wage-and-price controls and then recession and high unemployment. But inflation stayed up. This was “stagflation.” Some authorities decided that recessions had to be harsher. The Paul Volcker-Ronald Reagan recession of 1981 reduced inflation but eliminated millions of good jobs. Unemployment never fell below 5 percent. Unemployment did not fall below 5 percent before a new recession, which occurred during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Most economists believed that low inflation required permanently high unemployment; their view was labeled NAIRU—the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment. The late 1990s were a surprise. Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan and President Bill Clinton helped to bring low inflation and low unemployment at the same time. Real wages increased more than at any time since the early ’70s.
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Sep 10, 2007
Journal of Social History, Sep 1, 1982
simultaneously with the announcement of the five dollar figure. The part of the amount that was w... more simultaneously with the announcement of the five dollar figure. The part of the amount that was wages was in line with prevailing wage scales in Detroit at the time. If the rest was seen as sharing in profits, then the company could argue that this part was a privilege, not a right, so that it could justifiably investigate the private lives of its workers to determine if they were earning this privilege. The author goes into elaborate detail on labor conditions in the Ford Motor Company both before and after the five-dollar day, and on the work of the Sociological Department. He is highly ciritcal of the department for trying to impose "middle-class values" (cleanliness appears to be one of them) on Ford workers, but he nowhere suggests what other values might have been substituted. There are also detailed accounts of the efforts of the Ford Motor Company to "Americanize" the large number of immigrant workers it employed, of the activities of the American Protective League during World War I, and of the strong anti-union stance taken by Ford and the automobile industry generally. These episodes demonstrate that the subsequent performance of Harry Bennett and the Ford Service Department was essentially an intensification of existing practice. The author's conclusion is that the Ford experiment of profit-sharing, paternalism, and welfare capitalism failed, and he makes a convincing case. He ends his story in 1921, when the abandonment of the policy was signalized in the replacement of the Sociological Department by the Service Department. Harry Bennett was not yet on the scene, but what he was to represent was presaged by this change. The book appears overloaded with detail, to the point that what the author is trying to say is sometimes obscured. There are some very interesting personalities in this phase of the Ford Motor Company's history-John R. Lee, Dean Samual Marquis, Charles E. Sorensen-but here they are just names. They do not come through as living people. Nor is there any sense of the drama of the announcement of the fivedollar day. Nevertheless, this is a useful contribution to the history of the motor vehicle industry.
International Labor and Working-class History, 1981
The Westcoast Association of Marxist Historians (WAMH) was formed in the Fall of 1979 in Los Ange... more The Westcoast Association of Marxist Historians (WAMH) was formed in the Fall of 1979 in Los Angeles. Most of us were involved in the renewal of critical, radical, and Marxist perspectives in historical scholarship, which was stimulated by revolutionary liberation movements in the Third World and the radical movements that emerged in the United States in the 1960s. We felt the need to come together to share ideas and give one another critical support. We aimed first to address ourselves to the important issues facing radical and Marxist scholars in all disciplines, and second, to connect our work as scholars to current issues and struggles. To accomplish these aims, WAMH has held forums every month and publishes a newsletter every other month. Forums have focused on working-class culture in the United States, feudalism in the Third World, Hollywood and the Cold War, and revolutionary strategies in Mexico today. Recently we held forums on race and class in the United States, the legacy of Walter Rodney, and the rightwing attack on reproductive rights. We also sponsored talks by E.P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. WAMH also runs a Works-Shop, in which members read and criticize one another's work in progress. WAMH's membership is not limited to historians and academics. We feel strongly the need to breach the artificial lines among disciplines and the chasm between scholarship and activism. We have worked against U.S. intervention in El Salvador and for a citizen-controlled police review board in Los Angeles. We are working with £7 Foro del Pueblo, a Latino community newspaper in Los Angeles. We are planning a series of radio programs-historical perspectives on current struggles. In September we are holding a weekend conference, taught by members of the Popular Economics Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is designed as a fast course in economics and the current crisis for activists. In February of 1982 we will co-sponsor the Union of Radical Political Economists' regional conference in Los Angeles. Every two months our newsletter reaches over a thousand readers; although the bulk of the readership is in California, the newsletter is mailed to scholars around the world. It includes political statements, reviews of books that challenge