“We need the spirit of hope, because where there are no jobs, where people are underemployed or threatened, life is only half a life. It is bleak, lonely; often, it is almost savage. Life is right only with hope, and the rock-bottom foundation for hope is a livelihood. A nation at work is a sign of hope.”
Our Quote of the Week recognizes that in our society, we must have economic opportunity in order to feel stable and, in Sargent Shriver’s words, hopeful. We share these words ahead of Labor Day as a nod to the millions who are unemployed and underemployed in the United States today.
Sargent Shriver’s 1972 Address to the International City Managers Association is a bold campaign speech from Shriver’s 1972 run as Vice President on the McGovern ticket. In the speech, he criticizes the Nixon administration’s handling of the nation’s infrastructure, the Vietnam war, health care policies, education, and more. A central concern for Shriver, as reflected in our Quote of the Week, is a lack of jobs, and he includes unemployment as well as underemployment among his priorities.
Shriver’s words resonate today as we take a more nuanced look at total unemployment numbers and include those who would like full-time positions but settle for part-time jobs, as well as those who work but earn a wage that is not sufficient to meet their basic economic needs. According to the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, while the reported unemployment rate in the US in July 2025 was 4.2%, the “true” rate of functional unemployment is estimated to be a startling 24.7%—a “bleak, lonely, almost savage” reality that we must contend with.
While there are no easy solutions to some of the challenges posed by structural changes in the employment market (advancements in technology, shifts in manufacturing), there are things we can do as a society to improve the current situation. The federal government could raise the minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 and has not been raised since 2009. Given record-high profit margins, employers could also make a difference by increasing wages and making it easier for workers to organize.
In the final analysis, the more of us feel the hope, and the freedom, that comes from being able to meet our economic needs, the better off we all will be.
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