M D D A L I M 8 1 5 6 5 1 8 /5 /0 5 C Y A N M A G Y E L O B L K Restoring the American Dream Restoring the American Dream A Working Families’ Agenda for America Thomas A. Kochan The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email special_sales@mitpress. mit.edu or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA02142. This book was set in Palatino by SNPBest-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kochan, Thomas A. Restoring the American Dream : a working families’ agenda for America / Thomas A. Kochan. p. cm. Contents: Work, family, and American values—Integrating work and family life—Contributing and prospering in a knowledge economy—Good jobs— Building knowledge-based organizations—Portable benefits—Restoring voice at work and in society—Aworking families’ agenda for government—Acall to action. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-11292-2 (alk. paper) 1. Work and family—United States. 2. Quality of life—United States. 3. Family policy—United States. 4. Social planning—United States—Citizen participation. 5. United States—Economic policy—21st century. I. Title: Working families’ agenda for America. II. Title. HD4904.25.K634 2005 306.3¢6—dc22 2005045103 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my family—generations past, present, and future. Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xvii 1 Work, Family, and American Values 1 2 Integrating Work and Family Life 17 3 Contributing and Prospering in a Knowledge Economy 49 4 Good Jobs 69 5 Building Knowledge-Based Organizations 101 6 Portable Benefits 127 7 Restoring Voice at Work and in Society 141 8 AWorking Families’Agenda for Government 175 9 ACall to Action 203 Notes 223 Index 231 Preface I grew up on a small family farm in Wisconsin where work and family were inseparable. I have on a wall at home a picture of my four siblings and me with our grandfather standing together in a field on our farm at harvest time. This picture is a reminder of how farm life taught us the values of cooperation, community, respon- sibility, initiative, leadership, and, of course, hard work. With these values came an equally deep conviction that hard work should gen- erate its just rewards—a psychological feeling of accomplishment and pride, recognition from others of a job well done, and fair com- pensation. I was lucky to have parents who recognized that the world was changing in ways that required their children to move off the farm to go where job opportunities might take them. My parents encouraged us to get as much education as we could so that these opportunities would be open to us and to our children. Because of its progressive traditions, Wisconsin gave us this chance. We received a solid foundation of basic education from our local parish school, an excellent public high school, and a world- class public university system that has now served two generations of our family very well. The education I received enabled me to devote the last thirty years to studying, teaching, and advocating innovations in work and employment relations in search of ways to improve both our nation’s economic performance and the quality of work and family