Work and Public Health

Abstract

Economic change can bring many benefits, but it can also upset the economic positions and prospects of individuals and communities by dramatically curtailing access to decent employment. This paper explores the question of how a society ought to address those left behind by economic change. The paper's first goal is to defend the claim that the best way to frame the issue of access to decent employment is not just as an issue of economic policy but also as a public health issue, a framing that it justifies, in part, through the case study of “deaths of despair,” a phenomenon famously explored by Anne Case and Angus Deaton. This framing clarifies the moral urgency of expanding access to decent employment. The paper's second goal is to discuss the values at stake in the problem and in the possible solutions. I argue that (1) the state should implement policies friendlier to private sector employment and (2) the state should serve as an employer of last resort, at least when the work created is productive and doesn't create out-of-control inflationary pressures.