Employment Stability and Income Security
| Author | Carroll R. Daugherty |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400107 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
39
Employment
Stability
and
Income
Security
By
CARROLL
R.
DAUGHERTY
I N
a
world
of
unexpected
change
and
i
lurking
dangers,
most
human
beings
appear
to
desire
some
system
of social
arrangements
that
will
provide
a meas-
ure
of
certainty
and
security.
This
seems
to
be
as
true
of
modern
Ameri-
cans
as
of
their
prehistoric
forebears;
the
dangers
may
be
different,
but
they
are
there.
True,
history
suggests
that
there
have
been
long-term
fluctuations
in
the
strength
of
the
common
urge
for
security;
in
the
Middle
Ages
the
main
emphasis
was
on
security,
whereas
in
the
seventeenth
through
the
nineteenth
centuries
there
was
a
swing
to
adven-
ture
in
many
fields.
But
the
need
for
certainty
has
never
been
absent
or
weak,
and
in
the
recent
decades
of
the
twen-
tieth
century,
perhaps
chiefly
because
of
the
technological,
economic,
political,
and
social
effects
of
the
previous
cen-
turies’
adventuring,
there
has
been
once
more
a
mass,search
for
security.
Virtually
all
economic
and
political
associations
of
human
beings
seem
to
be
involved-households
and
business
enterprises
and
their
organizations,
and
nations.
Certainly
the
wage
earners’
households
and
unions
are
no
exception.
Rather
are
they
in
the
front
ranks
of
the
security
seekers,
because,
as
experi-
ence
has
shown
for
them
as
a
group,
they
suffer
most
from
the
hidden
terrors
of
the
modern
world.
By
themselves
they
are
less
able
to
make
the
neces-
sary
hedges
and
take
the
proper
pro-
tectionary
measures.
KINDS
OF
PROTECTION
DESIRED
What
specific,
tangible
kinds
of
se-
curity
does
the
typical
American
work-
man
wish
to
possess?
He
desires
pro-
tection
against
accidents
and
illness,
whether
the
risks
exist
within
or
out-
side
of
his
place
of
work;
and
if
he
is
stricken,
he
of
course
wishes
neither
to
lose
all
income
nor
to
be
unable
to
meet
the
medical
expenses.
Similarly,
he
wishes
not
to
lose
all
income
when
he
is
forced
to
retire
because
he
is
too
old
for
his
regular
work.
While
he
is
able
and
willing
to
work,
moreover,
he
desires
not
to
be
forced
to
lose
his
job
source
of
in-
come ;
or
he
would
like
to
be
able,
with-
out
too
much
difficulty,
to
find
another
job
just
as
good.
This
desire
for
job
security
has
sev-
eral
aspects:
First,
the
wage
earner
wishes
to
retain
his
job
against
any
possible
unreasonable,
arbitrary
discipli-
nary
action
by
his
supervisors.
Second,
he
wishes
not
to
lose
his
job-a
job
in
which
he
may
well
have
invested
most
of
his
work
life-from
technological
change.
Third,
he
hopes
he
will
not
lose
his
job
because
some
economic
mis-
fortune
has
struck the
particular
firm
for
which
he
works.
Fourth,
he
hopes
a
general
business
depression
will
not
close
down
all
or
most
firms,
including
his
own.
In
terms
of
losses
to
all
wage
earners
as
a
group,
there
is
ample
justification
-statistical,
case-study,
and
other-for
concluding
that,
of
all
the
hazards
listed
above,
job
insecurity
is
overwhelmingly
the
most
important.
And
among
the
several
aspects
of
job
insecurity,
the
one
affecting
most
workers
most
seriously
is,
as
the
data
also
emphasize,
the
mass
un-
employment
that
is
part
of
business
de-
pressions.
This
fact,
plus
the
space
limitations
of
this
volume,
confines
us
here
chiefly
to
a
brief
discussion
of
the
possibilities
of
preventing
such
unem-
ployment
and
its
losses
within
the
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