Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/56973 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 668
Publisher: 
Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Abstract: 
Forty-five years ago, the A. Philip Randolph Institute issued The Freedom Budget, in which a program for economic transformation was proposed that included a job guarantee for everyone ready and willing to work, a guaranteed income for those unable to work or those who should not be working, and a living wage to lift the working poor out of poverty. Such policies were supported by a host of scholars, civic leaders, and institutions, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; indeed, they provided the cornerstones for King's Poor Peoples' Campaign and economic bill of rights. This paper proposes a New Freedom Budget for full employment based on the principles of functional finance. To counter a major obstacle to such a policy program, the paper includes a primer on three paradigms for understanding government budget deficits and the national debt: the deficit hawk, deficit dove, and functional finance perspectives. Finally, some of the benefits of the job guarantee are outlined, including the ways in which the program may serve as a vehicle for a variety of social policies.
Subjects: 
unemployment
full employment
budget deficits
national debt
public policy
JEL: 
B500
E240
E610
H600
P160
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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