> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Doug Henwood) > At 1:48 PM 1/29/97, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > > >On the last point, a petition almost requires a news "hook" to > >attract attention. If we were in deep recession such a petition > >would be a more likely activity. > > Meaning that EPI - or the US left in general - must always be in a reactive > mode? . . . No, as the rest of my admittedly long response to Cherry reflects. > Why not say that some of the modest reduction in inequality we've > seen over the last couple of years, and the modest average real wage > increase, and the modest improvements in social indicators (esp for African > Americans) are the result of modestly taut labor markets (taut, that is, by > post-1973 standards)? Encouraging recognition of this would make it > modestly more difficult for the Fed to tighten, which it almost certainly > will do later this year? We do say that. The problem is not in what to say, but in how to get people to listen. Since our resources are finite, we have to pick and choose what to try to put across and when. Any statement (well, most any) someone on this list thinks we are neglecting can be found somewhere in our publications. We can always schedule press events and end up talking to our friends in the labor press, but we can do that just by using the telephone. As noted previously, we don't control the filter we must go through. You knew that, didn't you? MBS
