WHAT WOULD SPIKE LEE DO?

Today Congress began the public hearings into the impeachment of Pres. Donald Trump. Two highly respected diplomats testified, Mssrs. Taylor and Kent. Arnie and Ken were, by turns, riveted, heartbroken, frightened, and hopeful (about the courage of the public servants who stood up and spoke out, despite serious threats from the White House to keep quiet). The choices seem so simple: Just “do the right thing.”

We all teach our children to know the difference between right and wrong, and, when faced with a choice, to be honorable and act in accordance with what’s right, just, honorable, fair, and honest.  Shouldn’t our country’s leaders and their policies be governed by the same ethical standards?

Part One:

DRIVING WHILE BLACK, PART TWO.

We speak with Akheil Singla, assistant professor at the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. He performed a study to determine why cities with higher black populations rely more on traffic tickets and fines to raise the city’s revenue, compared to cities with lower numbers of black residents. With statistical testing, he found a high correlation between the cities’ black populations and the community’s reliance on revenue based on traffic stops by the police. His analysis held constant other possible causes of the disparity, and still found statistically significant correlations with race.

Singla suggested some policy changes that might eliminate this racial disparity. For example, it would help if cities found ways to remove the incentives for individual police officers to stop drivers in order to raise revenue. State governments could also decide to pool every town’s traffic revenue into an indistinguishable pot, and then distribute the pooled money to cities that needed it the most.

Part Two:

FIXING SOCIAL SECURITY – PART … TEN?

We talk with Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, about a bold plan to strengthen and improve the Social Security system. Circumstances have changed significantly since the 1930’s, when Social Security was first enacted. It was intended to supplement the pensions of people who had spent many decades working hard and contributing to the SS Fund. Now, however, most Americans change jobs frequently (not always by their own choice), and employers are almost never adopting fixed-benefit pension plans. Therefore Social Security constitutes the vast majority of most workers’ retirement income, and we are simply not raising enough payroll deductions for the Fund to provide sufficient retirement income for folks to subsist in their golden years.