>Shane Taylor wrote:
>
>> Doug Henwood wrote:
>> > I keep hoping people will adopt my slogan, but they don't:
>> > protect the worker, not the job.
>>
>> I like it. What could it mean in practice?
>
>What it means in practice is that the state makes no effort to protect,
>subsidize or otherwise prop up declining industries. Instead it focuses on
>providing income support, training and other assistance to displaced workers
>until they find equally desirable jobs elsewhere. The model is the Swedish
>active labor market policy. It's a slogan fairly narrowly tailored to be a
>response to protectionism. It speaks to workers in industries like steel and
>autos who feel (rightly in the current scheme of things) that their
>wellbeing is closely tied up with the health of those industries.
Yup, that's exactly what I had in mind. It also means that workers aren't afraid of innovation (which was consciously part of Swedish policy). And, though it's not cheap - I think the Swedes spent something like 2% of GDP on their policy, which would mean $200+ billion here - but you get what you pay for.
Doug