New Article: Kathryn Anne Edwards and Griffin Murphy, Economic Security for the 21st Century, Washington DC: The National Academy of Social Insurance (2022). Excerpt below:
In June 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Committee on Economic Security with the mandate to craft policy proposals that would provide individuals in the U.S. with “security against several of the great disturbing factors in life.” Whether they knew it at the time, the fifty members and staff of the Committee stood at the outset of a new era of political economy.
Prior to Roosevelt’s presidency, a shift in the labor market—from agriculture toward manufacturing—had been taking place for decades. The Great Depression revealed that the government’s role in the economy had not similarly transitioned to handle the new avenues of economic risk that the majority of households faced. Economic insecurity—the risk that an individual would not be able to maintain an adequate income in the face of a shock—has always been present, but the nature of that risk often changes as the main sources of income evolve. The Roosevelt administration addressed the newfound systemic risks by asking Congress to enact bold legislation, including the 1935 Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act.
Poverty Law 