"Civilizing capitalism"

Watched a good interview with our author Kirstin Downey on Democracy Now. You can even hear Perkin's voice giving a speech.

Downey explains that FDR and Frances Perkins were able to pass social security and enemployment compensation during the 1930's depression because it was just one of three or four depressions the American public had experienced in a fifty year period. The American economy worked on a boom, bust cycle. The programs Frances Perkins put forward acted like a shock absorber.

She was disappointed she wasn't able to include national health insurance in the package. After WWII companies offered health plans rather than higher salaries. Imagine where we would be today if she had started national health insurance in the 1940's?

Everybody needs a "wife"! This is one of those life lessons we all learn. I find it interesting that the only way Perkins could live in Washington, handle the work she had to do as Secretary of Labor, provide a home for her teenage daughter and support an ill husband was to share a home with a single, wealthy, well connected woman, Mary Harriman. She basically subsidized Perkins and her government work. Handling Perkin's work load and family responsibilites would have been impossible. Washington was a social town. She was responsible for her work duties as Secretary of Labor and the social obligations of the "wife" of this job title.

"...wives of government officials engage in a ritualized system of calling-card exchanges, in which women trekked from home to home leaving cards that indicated their desire to pay respects in person." At one point Perkins was between homes so the ladies left cards at her government office, this just wasn't the same. She needed a "home". Harriman provided that.

more later, I have to go do my "wife" thing