Labor Day

I don't have the time to write a detailed post doing this topic justice, but here are some issues to think about.  Also see "At last, workers are pushing back" and "If Labor Dies, What's Next?" by Harold Myerson.

-- Wage inequality, and the impact of inequality on a consumption-based economy.

- US Economics: Inequality and Consumption, Morgan Stanley

-- Various minimum wage initiatives at the city and county level across the country.

- Campaigns | Raise The Minimum Wage

-- The state of labor unions as a potential check on inequality, power, relationships to progressive urban policy agendas, and the negative impact at times of police unions on crime and public safety policy.

-- For cities and states, the pension and health insurance cost "crisis."

- The pension crisis in Chicago and Illinois, Chicago Tribune

-- The "Gig" or "independent-contractor"/consultant based economy and how this puts more responsibility for risk onto the individual.

- Risk Shift and the Gig Economy, Economic Policy Institute

-- The New York Times published a piece on Friday about labor-related art. "Take a Labor Day Tour of Blue-Collar Art" in the New York region and earlier in the summer, about labor-related poster art in an exhibit at the New-York Historical Society, in "Seeing the Power of Political Posters."