The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America

Cass (research fellow, Manhattan Inst.) presents a blend of free-market ideology and repackaged conservative social criticism. Hard work in modern America is underappreciated and overregulated, Cass contends. Environmental and safety regulations do not consider the trade-off between lasting public goods such as less air pollution vs. the short-term economic benefit of jobs in polluting industries. Cass laments immigration of unskilled workers, partisan labor union bosses, and the loss of societal sanctions on issues such as single motherhood, idleness, and personal responsibility. Appearing throughout is the strawman of the leftist, bourgeois do-gooder who pushes income transfers, statist social and economic policies, and undermines "traditional" American values. The early citation of Charles Murray, noted author of controversial works on racial intellectual differences, makes the ideological thrust of the text clear.