The following was originally published by PolicyLink in an email to supporters touting a new report on “prosperity economics,” and about how the discussion surrounding this approach could be made better if the reality of the coming nonwhite majority were to be taken into account:
What will it take for all Americans to prosper? That question drives our work at PolicyLink and is at the heart of a new report from Yale University, Prosperity Economics: Building an Economy for All. In this report, the authors Jacob Hacker and Nate Loewentheil lay out a “bold and completely sensible” policy agenda, according to PolicyLink Founder and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell in her piece posted on the Huffington Post blog. Their policy recommendations, ranging from rebuilding our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and expanding job training programs to providing universal pre-K and ensuring greater access to higher education for all students are “spot on,” says Blackwell.
But, says Blackwell in the post, a truly inclusive policy agenda “must create real pathways for people of color to shape the new economy, enter the middle class, and contribute to growth and democracy.” In coming years, the majority of Americans will be people of color, with the shift expected around 2042. To prepare for the future, Blackwell says, “policy proposals must be grounded in an awareness of the barriers that hold communities of color back, and create specific pathways to greater economic opportunity for workers and entrepreneurs of color.”
To read the full post, along with Blackwell’s suggestions for incorporating a stronger focus on racial and economic inclusion into a prosperity economics policy agenda, click here.
