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Part One:
We speak with Allana Akhtar, a jobs reporter for Business Insider, about predictions that raising the minimum wage would destroy businesses and undermine the economy. We discussed research after New York City raised its minimum wage to $15 in spite of fears that a “parade of horribles” would ensue, especially in New York’s famed restaurant industry. It turned out that those fears were unjustified. Most restaurants continued to do just fine, and the industry looks much the same as it did before the minimum wage was raised.
We also discuss Akhtar’s new article describing the fact that many teachers across the U.S. are spending their own money to purchase school supplies which are necessary but which their school district employers refused to buy. This is shocking not merely because employers are the ones responsible for purchasing supplies and the tools of the trade, but especially because teachers are so underpaid in the first place.
Part Two:
We speak again with “Dr. Politics,” Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State University. We are amazed at the latest outrageous statement by Cong. Steve King (R-Iowa) (Schmidt’s Congressman). King justified his desire to make all abortions illegal — even those caused by rape or incest — by claiming that there would not be “any population left without rape and incest.”
We also discuss this week’s stock market crash, apparently based on the “inverted” interest rate curve which often predicts an economic recession. In light of the serious and long-lasting harm that Trump’s economic policies (including his international trade wars) are causing for millions of average Americans, we think that voters might well remember this during the 2020 election and vote in a way that holds Trump, McConnell and the Republicans accountable.
