Search results for ""Author Susan B. Hansen""

In the American federal system, states actively compete for jobs, business investment, and factory locations. Labor costs have played an important role in such interstate competition since the days of the pre-Civil War plantation economy. In recent years, however, global economic trends have put added pressures on businesses and government to reduce labor costs. At least, that is what most politicians, the media, and the business community believe. "Globalization and the Politics of Pay" examines the economic, political, and social causes and consequences of declining wages in the United States. It challenges the conventional wisdom that globalization is to blame for the decline in workers' earnings. Susan B. Hansen presents a comprehensive analysis of the many factors affecting labor costs and concludes that many of them result from choices made by the states themselves through the laws and policies they enact. In addition, free-market ideologies and low voter turnout have had greater effects in keeping wages down than globalization. In fact, foreign trade and investment can actually result in higher pay in the state labor market. In this rigorous yet surprising study, Hansen develops new measures of state and federal labor costs to test competing theories of the consequences of reducing wages and benefits. Most economists would argue that higher labor costs cause higher unemployment, and that reducing labor costs will lead to higher levels of job creation. But citizens and elected officials must weigh any employment gains in lower-wage jobs against slower state economic growth, declining personal income, and a less-competitive position in international trade. Cutting state labor costs is shown to have adverse social consequences, including family instability, high crime rates, poverty, and low voter turnouts. The book concludes with policy recommendations for state governments trying to balance their need for more jobs with policies to enhance productivity, living standards, social stability, and international competitiveness.

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While the Religious Right has received considerable scholarly attention and media coverage in recent years, the story of the growing number of Secular Americans—those who identify themselves as atheists, agnostics, or as not having any religious ties—has yet to be told. In the first book devoted exclusively to Seculars, Susan B. Hansen argues that they are not only increasing in number and political involvement, but have devised strategies and alliances to counter the organization advantages of the Religious Right and its roots in church-based groups and the Republican party. Case studies of state and local battles over the issues of gay marriage, reproductive rights, and teaching evolution illustrate how Seculars have overcome organizational disadvantages to emerge as significant adversaries to the Religious Right. They have forged alliances with the media, the scientific community, minority groups, the Religious Left, and the Democratic Party to challenge the influence of traditional religious views on American politics and public policy.

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