Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy
18 Isabel V. Sawhill and Charles F. Stone state the prevailing view among economists this way: "High
employment is usually defined as the rate of unemployment consistent with no additional inflation, a rate currently
believed by many, but not all, economists to be in the neighborhood of 6 percent." "The Economy: The Key to
Success," in John L. Palmer and Isabel V. Sawhill, eds., The Reagan Record: An Assessment of America's Changing
Domestic Priorities (Cambridge, Mass.: Bollinger, 1984), 72. See also Stanley Fischer and Rudiger Dornbusch,
Economics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983), 731-743.
19 W.L. Birch, "Who Creates Jobs?" The Public Interest 65 (Fall): 3-14.
20 Martin Neil Baily and Arthur M. Okun, eds., The Battle Against Unemployment and Inflation, third edition
(New York: Norton, 1982); and Martin Neil Baily, "Labor Market Performance, Competition and Inflation," in Baily,
ed., Workers, Jobs and Inflation (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1982). See also, Lawrence Klein,
"Reducing Unemployment Without Inflation"; and James Tobin, "Unemployment, Poverty, and Economic Policy,"
testimony before the Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Banking,
Finance and Urban Affairs (March 19, 1985), serial no. 99-5, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1985),
15-18 and 31-33.
21 Tobin, “Unemployment, Poverty, and Economic Policy”; and Klein, “Reducing Unemployment Without
Inflation.”
22 Robert H. Haveman, "Toward Efficiency and Equity through Direct Job Creation," Social Policy 11:1
(May/June 1980): 48.
23 William H. McCarthy, Reducing Urban Unemployment: What Works at the Local Level (Washington, D.C.:
National League of Cities, October 1985); William Schweke, "States that Take the Lead on a New Industrial Policy," in
Betty G. Lall, ed., Economic Dislocation and Job Loss (New York: Cornell University, New York State School of
Industrial and Labor Relations, 1985), 97-106; David Robinson, Training and Jobs Programs in Action: Case Studies in
Private Sector Initiatives for the Hard to Employ (New York: Committee for Economic Development, 1978). See also
ch. IV of this pastoral letter.
24 Rudy Oswald, "The Economy and Workers' Jobs, The Living Wage and a Voice," in John W. Houck and
Oliver F. Williams, eds., Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy: Working Papers for a Bishops' Pastoral
(Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1984), 77-89. On the subject of shortening the work week, Oswald
points out that in the first 40 years of this century, the average workweek fell from 60 hours to 40 hours. However, the
standard workweek has been unchanged now for almost 50 years.
25 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 149, Money Income and Poverty Status of
Families in the United States: 1984 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1985).
26 Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts Nutrition Survey (Boston, Mass.: 1983).
27 There is considerable debate about the most suitable definition of poverty. Some argue that the government's
official definition understates the number of the poor, and that a more adequate definition would indicate that as many
as 50 million Americans are poor. For example, they note that the poverty line has sharply declined as a percent of
median family income—from 48 percent in 1959 to 35 percent in 1983. Others argue that the official indicators should
be reduced by the amount of in-kind benefits received by the poor, such as food stamps. By some calculations that
would reduce the number counted as poor to about 12 million. We conclude that for present purposes the official
government definition provides a suitable middle ground. That definition is based on a calculation that multiplies the
cost of USDA's lowest-cost food plan times three. The definition is adjusted for inflation each year.
Among other reasons for using the official definition is that it allows one to compare poverty figures over time.
For additional readings on this topic see: L. Rainwater, What Money Buys: Inequality and the Social Meanings of
Income (New York: Basic Books, 1975), id., Persistent and Transitory Poverty: A New Look (Cambridge, Mass.: Joint
Center for Urban Studies, 1980); M. Orshansky, "How Poverty Is Measured," Monthly Labor Review 92 (1969): 37-41;
M. Anderson, Welfare (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1978); and Michael Harrington, The New American
Poverty (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984), 81-82.
28 Of those in poverty, 3 million work year-round and are still poor. Of the 22.2 million poor who are 15 years or
older, more than 9 million work sometime during the year. Since 1979, the largest increases of poverty in absolute terms
have been among those who work and are still poor. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Money, Income and Poverty.
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