Dear George,

It is good to have on your page the arguments of the Chamber of Commerce and of Mr. Stern, the economics professor, because they neatly lay out the values and assumptions (shared by many in the society) which those of us in the Living Wage Movement need to deconstruct.

I suppose we should be grateful that Mr. Stern believes we have our "hearts in the right place," even though what we advocate is "misguided."
(Though I must say I was never cheered by the same patronizing language directed at us by the segrationists back in the 'fifties and 'sixties.) He is right that anyone who has taken an introductory economics course would be familiar with his argument. My introductory course, along with advanced seminars in monetary theory & fiscal policy and economic theory taught me the shallow and often self-serving nature of it. Forty-five years of writing about and teaching American History only deepened my skepticism.

Scholars have their place in debates about public policy. As one of them I wouldn't give up my right to be heard any more than Mr. Stern would. But David Swanson, in his vigorous critique of Mr. Stern's letter, reminds us all that we live in a democracy in which the millions of people in this country who work year-round for poverty-level wages quite rightly reject the economist's lessons and look to the democratic process for redress of their just grievances. The Living Wage Movement in America today promises well, I believe, to be our new civil rights movement, with all the moral and political power that movement marshalled to change our country for the better, more often than not against the teachings of the experts, historians and economists prominent among them.

Shameful realities underlie the American economy and, as one recent commentator put it, "America has gone blind to the downside of its great prosperity," mesmerized by what another has called "the smug rhteroic of prosperity." Poverty has nearly always accompanied progress in our history.

The Living Wage Movement has the potential to wrestle creatively with that conundrum and to question once again the values and assumptions that underlie the way we value our citizens and respect their self-evident right to the pursuit of happiness.

Paul Gaston (electronic mail, July 6, 2001).

Paul Gaston is Professor Emeritus in the History Department at the University of Virginia.