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Noah Smith

An Agenda to Help the Poor Up the Economic Ladder

Helping people start their own business is a way to make sure hard work pays off.
Liberals need a new approach to employment.

Liberals need a new approach to employment.

Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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The American left is casting around for a new economic paradigm. Everyone knows that neoliberalism -- the program of tax cuts, deregulation and privatization -- is looking pretty shopworn, but it’s not clear what the left can offer to replace it.  

One possibility is a “new industrialist” approach of building infrastructure, supporting research and encouraging companies to invest more. But another idea that I see slowly emerging in the U.S. is to increase economic mobility.