The Once and Future Worker

Conservative Oren Cass’s best-selling indictment of American labor and social policy since World War II attacks his fellow conservatives as much as it excoriates liberals. His central argument – that policy must help and encourage employed workers rather than idle ones – offers support for the displaced and unemployed. His advocacy for an end to unskilled immigration and a shift from welfare for the idle to assistance for the employed is controversial. Although he will provoke debate, Cass – the executive director of American Compass, a writer for the National Review and the domestic policy director of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign – offers interesting opinions and ideas to all concerned with the future of US society.

Neglect and mismanagement of the labor market have been the central failures of American public policy for a generation.Oren Cass

William A. Galston, of the Brookings Institution, said that Cass’s “core principle ― a culture of respect for work of all kinds ― can help close the gap dividing the two Americas.” Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, wrote, “His diagnosis cuts to the heart of what’s troubling our political economy, and his prescriptions chart the way toward a more constructive politics.” Cass’s former boss, US Senator Mitt Romney felt his book “should be required reading for those who endeavor to create a labor market in which workers can create and support strong families and communities.” And Samuel Hammond of the Niskanen Center described it as, “a coherent critique of hyper-globalization paired with a strategy for re-empowering the working class.”