March - April, 1996, A Town Meeting on Economic Insecurity: Employment and Survival in Urban America...
The panelists were...Barack Obama, candidate for the 13th Illinois Senate District...
Barack Obama observed that... the state government has three constructive roles to play... While Barack Obama did not use this term, it sounded very much like the "social wage" approach used by many social democratic labor parties... The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs... The government can use as tools labor law reform, public works and contracts.
Save everything you find on this site, I expect it all to mysteriously disappear before tomorrow morning.
with respect to Obama, it is useful to remember that FDR did not walk into the White Hose in 1933 with a program that resembled what we came to know as the New Deal but only with a commitment to help his fellow citizens. In fact, had he spelled out something that looked like the New Deal during the campaign, he might well not have been elected... in this campaign that is probably the best we can expect.