America Ascendant

by Stanley B Greenberg

  Pope Francis changes everything.

  “We have created new idols,” the pope concludes. “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in the new and ruthless guise of the idolatry of money,” with the following result: “While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.”30

  The pope embraced the core argument of this book: the deepest problems must be addressed if we are to make progress. “As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.”31

  Pope Francis accepts that countries have reached a tipping point where powerful forces for progress are running up against the building social ills, with many people at the end financially and struggling to live.

  In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in its history, as we see the advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communication. At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences.

  It is a “turning-point,” the pope believes, because the contradictions and the need to act are both becoming inescapable. In such a world “The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident.”32

  It is in the cities, the pope understands, where the multicultural mix comes together to build and innovate and find ways to live in proximity and not to just tolerate but respect and celebrate differences:

  How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralyzing mistrust, integrate those who are different and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive are those cities which, even in their architectural design, are full of spaces which connect, relate and favor the recognition of others!

  He admires the multiculturalism:

  Cities are multicultural; in the larger cities, a connective network is found in which groups of people share a common imagination and dreams about life, and new human interactions arise, new cultures, invisible cities.

  He praises the cities that open their doors to immigrants and “prove capable of creating new forms of cultural synthesis” instead of “fearing the loss of local identity.”33

  But cities are also segregated and violent, and full of the contradictions we know so well:

  Cities create a sort of permanent ambivalence because, while they offer their residents countless possibilities, they also present many people with any number of obstacles to the full development of their lives.

  The results are that cities are places for “mass protests” and where people seek “justice” and “a voice in public life.”34

  He also knows about the other contradictions in our culture, such as what is happening with families and people drawing back from civil society today.

  The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live.

  And Pope Francis insists, like so many economists concerned with mobility, that the “indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple.” He also sees the “depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life” as critical to people’s material and spiritual well-being.35

  In the face of such challenges, society needs charity expressed in “micro-relationships (with friends, with family member, or within small groups),” though it also needs to be expressed in our economy, civil society, and politics. “I beg the Lord,” he writes, “to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state of society, the people, the lives of the poor!” They need to begin their work with focus on “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned, and many others,” including migrants.36

  Even more important, the pope sees an obligation to advance very specific policies whose goal is to ensure that growth’s gains are broadly shared. It is almost as if he has read Joseph Stiglitz when he writes:

  Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programs, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor.37

  So Pope Francis really does change everything. He has thrown the Catholic Church behind the idea that the country is at a crisis point and all in civil society, business leaders and politicians, must work to offset the economic and cultural contradictions of our progress.

  Pope Francis’s exhortation should remind us that the church remains the strongest institution in many local communities, and America’s religious community is fairly tolerant of religious pluralism and listens to a forgiving God. That includes large parts of the new American majority—the African American community and Hispanics—for whom church congregations are central to daily life, family, community, and politics.

  Pope Francis is a natural ally in the battle to win support for an urban agenda to raise incomes and reduce poverty in these multicultural and dynamic metropolitan areas. He will no doubt be an ally in promoting infant health, universal health care as a right, and the need for children to learn skills and values at the earliest ages.

  I do not underestimate the importance of that change, though that is the easy part, to be honest. America also needs congregations with more congregants, especially in poor and working-class neighborhoods where church attendance is falling and more people are trying to manage on their own. The family is in crisis. We need more people to marry, more children to be raised in two-parent households, and more parents to take responsibility for raising and educating their children, especially working-class men who have not settled in household roles. Nothing would prove more important to bringing greater happiness, social mobility, and rising incomes. And congregations can help.

  We do not yet know whether the Catholic Church will ultimately end up welcoming gay congregants and accepting gay marriage and divorced Catholics. We do know for certain that Pope Francis embraces parents and parenting—and few things are more important to the well-being of children and their future prospects. Few things have as big an impact on social mobility and inequality in cities and the country as single motherhood.

  America is being radically shaped by a “two-tier family” structure that is becoming deeply entrenched. “In the upper, college-educated third of American society, most kids today live with two parents, and such families nowadays typically have two incomes,” Robert Putnam describes in his powerful book Our Kids. “In the lower, high-school-educated third, however, most kids live with at most one of their biological parents, and in fact, many live in a kaleidoscopic, multi-partner, or blended family, but rarely with more than one wage earner.” The human toll, cost to society, and immorality of this state of affairs are calculable, as Putnam shows, but who’s counting? That ought to be a call to arms.38

  Francis himself sounds like he is trying to figure out how to help the children and the mothers and fathers who face such challenges. In statements to reporters after a trip to the Philippines, Pope Francis said Catholics do not need to breed “like rabbits.” With the pope calling for “responsible parenthood,” the Church’s social agenda may come to include policies to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies or to encourage teenagers to delay when they have children.39

  It is not a foregone conclusion that if churches take up this mission with a sense of moral purpose teenagers will put off getting pregnant,
more people will rush to get married, and more children will be raised in two-parent households. In macro terms, the areas of the country with the highest rates of church attendance are also the areas with the highest rates of divorce and single-parent homes. That correlation, however, could be a false one—simply the result of the concentration of non-college, working class, and poorer households in these areas, particularly in the South. However, we really do know that government programs to encourage marriage have not proved particularly effective. Well-funded government programs under George W. Bush that counseled people to marry just did not succeed in increasing marriage rates or keeping parents together.40

  While making progress is difficult, there is a lot to be done that can reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, delay childbearing, and improve parenting—particularly if civil society rallies to the compelling need to bring social change. Up until now, the churches have hesitated because the Catholic Church has opposed artificial birth control and fundamentalist denominations have resisted sex education. The reality is that social conservatives tried to block contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act and are still battling to limit its scope.

  Will the pope’s new emphasis on delaying childbearing and helping struggling parents left behind by the new economy change what is possible? If yes, here is where progressives should start.

  We know we have the ability to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of young, single moms. A stunning 60 percent of their pregnancies are unintended. Half of these were the result of not using any contraception, and nearly as many from inconsistent or incorrect use. Interviews with women suggest that “many young Americans are drifting into pregnancy,” the Brookings social mobility project reports. And this trend is particularly pronounced among the poor and women without a high school diploma, though it is also marked for high school graduates too.41

  The use of IUDs is extremely effective in preventing pregnancy, indeed, 20 times more than the pill. Black churches are already advocates for the greater use of birth control and could be mobilized in the effort to expand their use.42

  A teenager who delays having a baby for two years and gets a high school diploma will by age 29 earn $6,600 a year more than a teenager who does not wait and fails to get a degree. These personal choices have a huge impact on life chances.43

  Federal government programs can have a measurable impact. Ron Haskins, codirector of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, points to the Nurse-Family Partnership—a program where nurses visit mothers to advise on prenatal health, child rearing, and life skills from before birth until the child is two years old. The participating mothers “were less likely to abuse or neglect their kids, and more likely to be working, and their kids were more likely to be healthy and ready for school.”44

  Sentencing reform is supported by conservative and liberal elected officials and is an obvious starting point that would immediately affect families and parenting in these communities. Reforms could reduce sentences for nonviolent criminals, rehabilitate ex-prisoners on a much wider scale, and increase funding for job training and drug rehabilitation.45

  Policies that expand tax credits and income to poorer families in a sustained way can be life changing. Receiving $3,000 in family income during the first five years of a child’s life has an astonishing impact—an increase in academic achievement equivalent to 20 points on the SAT and 20 percent higher income later in life.46

  To really have a chance, the Catholic parishes, the black churches, and an array of other congregations would likely need to take the lead in elevating these issues and in their support for parents and parenting, but progressive reformers have a big stake in their success too.

  AMERICAN BUSINESS

  The business community is in a position to lead and ally with others in civil society to demand that national leaders of both parties move ahead with three critical reforms that will accelerate America’s economic growth and expand opportunity. This is not some liberal wish list for business. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major business groups have supported and lobbied for comprehensive immigration reform, long-term infrastructure investment with public-private funding, and funding for universal pre-K in every city and state. Each has won major bipartisan backing. When passed, these reforms would relieve some of the greatest inefficiencies in the U.S. economy, reinforce America’s competitive advantage, and help U.S. companies get the labor force they need. And critically for the country, they would expand employment, opportunity, and social mobility.

  Think about the potential vibrancy of the American economy if immigration were reformed and the undocumented legalized, if public-private financing were allowing the rebuilding of America long-term, and if all children zero to five were getting early education. These are major reforms that allow America to realize the potential for growth and allow more people to share in the gains.

  Business has as much interest in advancing these three changes as Democratic and reform leaders who now put these initiatives at the heart of their economic mandate. But the business community has hardly mobilized to support this agenda in the past few years. They were discouraged by Washington’s dysfunction and a Republican Party that has walked away from all three. The current Republican Party cannot even entertain the idea of the “DREAMers” gaining legal status. The Paul Ryan budget cuts infrastructure spending by a quarter over the next decade, and Republicans at the federal and state levels have aggressively pushed for cuts in education funding.

  It is not unimportant that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its allies spent heavily to defeat Tea Party candidates in the off-year elections and will rally to support “establishment” candidates in the presidential primaries. U.S. businesses cannot wait on the Chamber of Commerce to forsake its role as head of the business wing of the Republican Party. America cannot wait either.

  The U.S. business community can only advance this critical agenda if it makes clear how high a priority these changes are and joins with prestigious coalitions to demand action on this three-part probusiness package. They should make clear: “Don’t even think of yourself as pro-business unless you are with us on these three priorities.”

  Comprehensive immigration reform

  The vitality of America’s economy past and present is fueled by legal and illegal immigrants who contribute as consumers, employees, and employers and who are part of America’s unique cultural diversity. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, passed in the U.S. Senate with a bipartisan, two-to-one vote, would be a transformative law that would strengthen America’s economy and add to our diversity even further.

  As I described in chapter 2, if this law becomes the law of the land, the population would grow by ten million in ten years and sixteen million by 2033. The twelve million undocumented across the country would gain legal status and be on a path to citizenship after ten years. The “DREAMers” would move quickly into citizenship. There would be no more caps on family-based visas for spouses and minor children. The law would create new guest-worker visas for low-skilled workers in construction and hospitality, and agricultural workers would get immigrant status. It would create a new merit-based visa system that considers skills, employment history, and educational credentials, admitting about 200,000 immigrants a year.47

  And critically for business, green card limits would be lifted for the exceptionally talented and for those graduates with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from U.S. universities. The cap for high-skilled workers would also be substantially raised. In addition, the law would create a start-up visa to entrepreneurs abroad who wish to start a company here.48

  Consistent with our history, this transformative law would increase the real GDP by 3.3 percent by 2023 and 5.4 percent by 2033. With immigrants participating in the labor force at a higher rate than other Americans and paying more of their earnings in taxes, this transformative law would reduce t
he deficit by $300 billion.49

  These changes can happen if the next president and congressional leaders insist on it, but that is in the hands of the business community. Comprehensive immigration reform likely had the broadest and deepest support of any reform that has advanced in recent years. There was broad support from religious organizations and associations, from the Catholic Church, the mainline Protestant faiths, Jewish and Muslim associations, the National Council of Churches, and the YWCA. There was support from every immigrant and civil rights group, including the National Council of La Raza and organizations representing Asian Americans and Hebrew immigrants. There was support from Planned Parenthood and LGBT rights organizations. There was support from the unions, including the National Education Association, the SEIU, and the AFL-CIO. But also lobbying for the bill were Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce under the hashtag #Ready4Reform. A parade of tech leaders lobbied the Hill for the law’s passage. Bill Gates helped found one of the key groups, along with senior figures at Dropbox, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce declared on its Web site, “Throughout our history, America has had the opportunity to grow and thrive because we have attracted and welcomed the most talented and the hardest working people to our shores” and argued, “Commonsense immigration reform would boost economic growth, create jobs, and spur innovation and entrepreneurship.” The Chamber of Commerce was also instrumental in hammering out the details of the Senate’s comprehensive reform bill, negotiating an agreement on guest workers with the AFL-CIO in early 2013.50