Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.

Walter P. Paepcke, Aspen Institute Co-Founder

Opportunity in America

Opportunity in America, an event series hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program, considers the changing landscape of economic opportunity in the US and implications for individuals, families, and communities across the country.

The series highlights the ways in which issues of race, gender, and place exacerbate our economic divides, and ideas and innovations with potential to address these challenges and broaden access to quality opportunity.

Is America living up to our aspirations to be a real “land of opportunity?” Even as the economy’s expansion continues, mobility is in decline while inequality reaches alarming heights. How should we define opportunity in the era ahead? How can we ensure that everyone has equitable access to it? Opportunity in America explores the changing nature of opportunity, who is and isn’t included, and concrete ideas for expanding access to quality economic opportunities.

Opportunity in America builds on our Working in America events, which examined how the changing nature of work influenced access to opportunity in America, particularly for low- and moderate-income workers, but also broaden the lens to more intentionally include business ownership strategies as a key route to accessing economic opportunity in the US. We hope you will join us as we seek to advance strategies, policies, and ideas to ensure all have a fair shot to pursue their American Dream.

To learn about upcoming events, join our mailing list and follow us on social media.

Recent and Upcoming Events

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes
Economic Opportunity

Building Economic Security: A Book Talk with Arindrajit Dube and Carrie Joy Grimes

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What Employee Ownership Means to Workers
Economic Opportunity

What Employee Ownership Means to Workers

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Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman
Economic Opportunity

Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman

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The Necessity of Employee-Centered Strategies: A Book Talk with Steve Dawson and Jerry Rubin
Economic Opportunity

The Necessity of Employee-Centered Strategies: A Book Talk with Steve Dawson and Jerry Rubin

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Coming of Age at Work: Good Jobs for Teens
Economic Opportunity

Coming of Age at Work: Good Jobs for Teens

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Backsliding on Child Protections: The Return of Child Labor in the US
Economic Opportunity

Backsliding on Child Protections: The Return of Child Labor in the US

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The Future of Equal Opportunity
Economic Opportunity

The Future of Equal Opportunity

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Feeling the Heat: Workplace Safety in a Warming World
Economic Opportunity

Feeling the Heat: Workplace Safety in a Warming World

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Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle To Shape the American Economy — A Book Talk with Chris Hughes

Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle To Shape the American Economy — A Book Talk with Chris Hughes

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How Good Jobs Support Small Business Success: Lessons from the Shared Success Demonstration
Economic Opportunity

How Good Jobs Support Small Business Success: Lessons from the Shared Success Demonstration

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Working and Homeless in America — A Book Talk with Brian Goldstone — Resources

Working and Homeless in America — A Book Talk with Brian Goldstone — Resources

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Working and Homeless in America — A Book Talk with Brian Goldstone – Transcript

Working and Homeless in America — A Book Talk with Brian Goldstone – Transcript

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Event Recordings

Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman
Podcasts Videos

Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman

For decades, economists and policymakers have debated how to help workers get better jobs. But what if the more fundamental problem is that employers have systematically redesigned work itself to make a third of the workforce expendable? In his forthcoming book, “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment,” MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman examines this idea and what it would take to reverse it.

The Necessity of Employee-Centered Strategies: A Book Talk with Steve Dawson and Jerry Rubin
Podcasts Videos

The Necessity of Employee-Centered Strategies: A Book Talk with Steve Dawson and Jerry Rubin

This is the final event in our Job Quality in Practice series. In this conversation, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on May 7, 2026, we hear from the Institute’s Job Quality Fellows who are embedding job quality into their work across a range of contexts and strategies — from employee ownership models that give workers a direct financial stake in their company’s success, to apprenticeship programs that create structured pathways to higher-wage careers, to worker advisory committees that bring employee voice into business decision-making.

Coming of Age at Work: Good Jobs for Teens
Podcasts Videos

Coming of Age at Work: Good Jobs for Teens

This event — hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Forum for Community Solutions on April 21, 2026 — explores how to create meaningful work opportunities for teens while protecting them from dangerous and exploitative conditions

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Podcasts Videos

Backsliding on Child Protections: The Return of Child Labor in the US

For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or subscribe to our podcast to listen on the go.

Banking on Skills: Cara Collective and BMO Bank Partner for Change
Podcasts Videos

Banking on Skills: Cara Collective and BMO Bank Partner for Change

This event draws on insights from our Workforce Leadership Academies. For highlights from this discussion, subscribe to EOP’s YouTube channel. Or subscribe to our podcast to listen on the go.

The Future of Equal Opportunity
Videos

The Future of Equal Opportunity

A core shared value in American society, one deeply woven into our national narrative, is the belief in equal opportunity — the idea that everyone should have a fair chance to succeed based on their effort, talent, and ambition, regardless of their background.

Feeling the Heat: Workplace Safety in a Warming World
Videos

Feeling the Heat: Workplace Safety in a Warming World

In this event — hosted by the Economic Opportunities Program on July 30, 2025 — we learn how the warming climate is affecting workers, and what policymakers, businesses, and labor are doing to keep workers safe.

Working and Homeless in America — A Book Talk with Brian Goldstone
Videos

Working and Homeless in America — A Book Talk with Brian Goldstone

This virtual book talk — hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on April 30, 2025 — features Goldstone in conversation with moderator Maureen Conway, a vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program.

Event Archive

Past Events in the Opportunity in America Series

Communications Toolkit for “Valuing Care: Principles for a Post-Pandemic Care Economy”
Event

Communications Toolkit for “Valuing Care: Principles for a Post-Pandemic Care Economy”

Care work is underpaid and often invisible. How can we build a care economy that dignifies the work of caregivers and expands access to quality care?

Valuing Care: Principles for a Post-Pandemic Care Economy
Event

Valuing Care: Principles for a Post-Pandemic Care Economy

Care work is underpaid and often invisible. How can we build a care economy that dignifies the work of caregivers and expands access to quality care?

Photo of an Asian woman working in a warehouse. She is using a tablet and wearing a hard hat, face mask, and reflector vest.
Event

California’s Plans for the Future of Work, Workers, and a Renewed Social Compact

Now is the time to lay the foundation for a more inclusive economy. Learn what California is doing to build a brighter future of work.

Photo of a delivery worker wearing a face mask and gloves
Event

Moving Beyond Gratitude: Opportunities to Improve Essential Work

2020 taught us the importance of essential workers. Let’s say thank you by improving the quality of essential jobs.

Can Employee Share Ownership Improve Racial and Gender Wealth Equity?
Event

Can Employee Share Ownership Improve Racial and Gender Wealth Equity?

Promoting employee ownership can help build a more equitable economy and expand the freedom of working people.

Photo of a Black man and Asian woman wearing face masks and bumping elbows in an office.
Event

California’s Approach to Recovery and Resilience: Centering Equity and Job Quality

The pandemic has sparked overdue conversations about worker health and safety, unemployment benefits, health insurance, and fair wages and benefits.

Delivering Credit to Entrepreneurs of Color Impacted by COVID-19: Why Community Financial Institutions Are Essential
Event

Delivering Credit to Entrepreneurs of Color Impacted by COVID-19: Why Community Financial Institutions Are Essential

What role can CDFIs play in supporting entrepreneurs and advancing equity during this uncertain time?

African American woman restaurant worker wearing a face mask in the kitchen
Event

Open to Good Jobs: Now is the Time to Improve Equity and Job Quality in Restaurant Work

Can we reimagine restaurants, and restaurant work, so that workers, businesses, and communities all thrive?

American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promised
Event

Race, Economy, and COVID-19: How America’s Race Problem Exacerbated the Crisis – A Book Talk with Eduardo Porter

Hear New York Times Reporter Eduardo Porter discuss his new book, “American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promise.”

Photo of protesters gathering in front of the US Capitol
Event

Live Q&A: COVID-19 and Unemployment Insurance – A Discussion with Rebecca Dixon (Executive Director, National Employment Law Project)

With millions of new unemployment claims in the midst of the pandemic, the Economic Opportunities Program held a live Q&A on the cost of this economic dislocation and solutions that could help those who are unexpectedly out of work.

About the Economic Opportunities Program

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

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More from the Economic Opportunities Program

Resource Roundup: Data Centers and the Workforce
Blog Posts

Resource Roundup: Data Centers and the Workforce

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Blog Posts

Economic Opportunities Program Monthly Digest — September 2026

Work and the Social Contract in the Age of AI: How did we get here?
Podcasts Videos

Work and the Social Contract in the Age of AI: How did we get here?

“Social contract” has quickly become one of the most-used, least-defined phrases in the AI policy conversation. This first event in a two-part series will trace the origin and history of the American social contract, examining how work became the anchor of economic security, mobility, and civic identity in the United States.

Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman
Podcasts Videos

Disposable Workers: A Book Talk with MIT Sloan Professor Paul Osterman

For decades, economists and policymakers have debated how to help workers get better jobs. But what if the more fundamental problem is that employers have systematically redesigned work itself to make a third of the workforce expendable? In his forthcoming book, “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment,” MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman examines this idea and what it would take to reverse it.

Building an Ownership Culture: From the Shop Floor to the National Narrative
Blog Posts

Building an Ownership Culture: From the Shop Floor to the National Narrative

The Workforce of the Future Starts with Adult Basic Education
Blog Posts

The Workforce of the Future Starts with Adult Basic Education

To create a future-ready workforce system, we must move beyond outdated credentials and analog processes to one that is skills-first, transparent, data-driven, and aligned with the evolving needs of workers, educators, and employers.

Foundational Skills: Early Insights from Employers and Providers
Publications

Foundational Skills: Early Insights from Employers and Providers

This publication examines how fragmented skills, credentialing, and workforce data systems limit the potential of skills-based hiring and advancement, and outlines a shared vision for building the interoperable infrastructure needed to create a connected skills ecosystem that benefits workers, employers, educators, and governments.

How Tax Policy Can Help Employers Expand Access to Learning
Podcasts Videos

How Tax Policy Can Help Employers Expand Access to Learning

In this interview, Chelsea Miller of Upskill America speaks with Nick Greif of InStride about how employers can design education benefits that are more accessible, strategic, and aligned with workforce goals.