Phil Longman: Jobs are Not Enough

In early July, we hosted an event to commemorate the release of Washington Monthly’s July/August issue, which explored some of the core concepts from the asset building field. To highlight key aspects of the event, we’ve separated out the video footage from the authors of some of the key pieces from the issue. The full event is available here.

Phil Longman, a Senior Fellow at both New America and the Washington Monthly, spoke about the inadequacy of a singular focus on jobs as the solution to our economic woes. Even prior to the recent recession, many employed people struggled to make ends meet and had little left over to save. How did we get to a place where a job was simply not enough to ensure long-term financial stability? At the event, Longman traced the demographic and economic shifts of the twentieth century that both created and then threatened the solvency of the middle class. (He actually goes even further back than that, drawing on Quranic and Biblical teachings about usury.) The erosion of wealth in the wake of the recession is thus the product of decades, if not centuries, of policy choices, market forces, and regulatory priorities. Longman’s sees two broad categories of policies that will help address our economic problems: those that actively help Americans build up their financial assets and those that help people make better use of assets they already have. Watch his remarks below.

His contributions to the issue are listed below.

Jobs are Not Enough (with Paul Glastris)

The Hole in the Bucket

How to Save Our Kids From Poverty in Old Age

In addition, Phil discussed his work with:

Minnesota Public Radio

MSNBC’s The Cycle