Next Social Contract: Policy Papers

Today’s young people have considerably more progressive opinions about economic issues than do their elders. Under-30s voted very strongly for Barack Obama in 2008 and expressed liberal views about the economy (and about other issues) in pre-election polls. Observers and strategists are now asking whether we will see a lasting change in American politics as a result of the Millennials’ arrival. It is possible that they are liberal because they are young, and they will move to the right as they grow older. But analyses of the trajectories across… more

The 2008 presidential election unleashed a potent new force in American politics. It is the Millennial Generation: Americans born since 1982, now age 26 and under. Politicians and pundits alike were surprised by the waves of young volunteers who manned the campaign front lines, phone banking, blogging, canvassing door-to-door, and organizing large groups of peers to do the same. Politics was suddenly cool, pushing Time to jump ahead of longtime favorite Cosmo as the most popular magazine on college campuses. Youth turnout in the primaries jumped

This proposal offers dramatic improvements in highway safety and public health, as well as much reduced highway maintenance and construction costs. It will also significantly reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, traffic jams, and shipping costs while providing significant short- and long-term economic stimulus. If fully implemented, it could get as many as 83 percent of all long-haul trucks off our nation's highways by 2030, reduce carbon emissions by 39 percent and oil consumption by 15 percent. Call it… more

Americans instinctively revere the family as an institution that helps facilitate all other aspects of life. The family fosters attachments across generations, provides a nurturing environment in which to raise children, and is a means of transmitting values from one generation to the next. It is the foundation upon which our social contract has been built.

In the fall of 2007, Countrywide Financial, then the nation's largest mortgage lender, had a curious new idea -- or, more precisely, an old one. It would no longer import foreign capital through Wall Street to make subprime loans. Instead, it would depend entirely on deposits from savers, who would finance each other's mortgages -- kind of like that humble thrift institution run by George Bailey in the movie It's a Wonderful Life."

In light of the current state of the economy, it appears likely that Congress will pass another stimulus package...

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recognizes that there is a strong enough risk of a prolonged recession that a fiscal stimulus package may well make sense. Given the many risks associated with a significant downturn, it makes sense to err on the side of caution in determining whether more stimulus is appropriate. Assuming Congress proceeds with plans to offer some type of stimulus package, CRFB offers three… more

One might well have imagined over the last few years that we were headed toward an era of deeply partisan politics. Under the tutelage of Karl Rove, the Bush Administration “played to the base.” Most of the energy on the other end of the spectrum came from “netroots” bloggers who flamed Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, and the centrist Democratic Leadership Conference with nearly the same contempt they showed for George W. Bush and Karl Rove. Yet here we find ourselves at a moment many describe a “post-partisan”… more

The first premise of the New America Foundation’s initiative on the Next Social Contract is that the structures that help American workers and their families balance economic security and opportunity involve much more than a set of government programs. What we call the social contract is a set of formal and informal systems and assumptions, involving individuals, employers and government, that provide, as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. put it, “security in the context of freedom and freedom in the context of security.” These assumptions have evolved through the course… more

Though Americans are deeply divided in their politics, they still generally share one transcendent political value. It is the distinctly American notion that the widespread ownership of property—particularly homes, small businesses, and financial savings—benefits individuals and the nation. This core American belief descends from a political tradition in American life that is older than the Republic itself. It is the Yeoman ideal—which holds that small-scale property ownership confers special dignity and autonomy to the individual, while also improving civic participation and serving as a check on monopoly capital.

From Jeffersonian farmer… more

Our social contract -- the formal and informal, public and private arrangements by which we ensure economic security and opportunity -- has evolved over the course of American history in response to changing economic and political conditions and demographic realities. This evolutionary process, in which the balance between individual responsibility and the responsibilities of government, employers, and civil society has been struck and restruck, has proceeded in fits and starts. Change has come quickly at times of crisis and… more

American families confront major challenges in balancing work and family life. Workers report that they would prefer fewer hours, while new technological capabilities require parents to bring more job responsibilities home with them. Mothers and fathers encounter strain in work and home environments alike. Polling and surveillance data confirm that the balance between work and family care needs attention. Some of the most quantifiable and severe costs of this burden on families are adverse health outcomes. This paper… more

In the 20th century, Americans adopted a new "social contract" -- a support system to help provide every American with the basic security and goods considered necessary to enjoy a productive and enterprising life. Under a sound social contract, access to these goods should not depend on where you work, where you live, or what you believe. At its best, the American social contract is citizen-based.

A citizen-based social contract resonates with the American democratic republican values of personal… more

America’s health care system fails to meet the standards set by its peers around the world. It delivers substandard patient care far too often, leaves tens of millions uninsured, and its rising cost growth threatens the foundations of our economy and society. Unless we move toward comprehensive, system-wide reform, we will continue to waste billions of dollars and thousands of lives every year in a health care system that is riddled with ineffi ciencies. A health care system for… more

The recent turnover in Congress, combined with a wide open presidential election cycle, creates a rare opportunity to bring new ideas into the political process. The spirit of this new era will be captured by those-from either party or no party-who embrace innovative yet pragmatic solutions to the foremost challenges facing our nation. We offer this collection of Big Ideas as fuel for an overdue bipartisan debate about how to update our national policies for the common good.