Podcasts about unfair economy

All too often we think about, or more accurately don't think about, the ripple effects of low-wage work on families beyond the thought that things must be tight. In this conversation, based on their important book, Getting Me Cheap: How Low Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty, Lisa Dodson, Amanda Freeman, and I discuss the implications not just in the present but in the future for those trapped in this deeply unjust cycle. When we think about who is providing the childcare, the elder care, the cleaning services and more that we rely on to keep life functioning in the ways we are accustomed to, it is often women being paid unlivable wages. But many of these women themselves have families and if they aren't there to fulfill the adult role because they are, often, working multiple jobs to make ends meet, the brunt of filling that gap falls to their children, usually the girls.  Dodson and Freeman explore the stories of the women they met, their realities, struggles, and aspirations, as they challenge us to confront and change what is a deeply unjust and flawed system in order to break the generational cycle of poverty and of parents who, as Dodson and Freeman describe, can't afford to buy their children a childhood.  This conversation made me think in deeper and different ways about the impact of societal inequities and, once again, made me question whether these are bugs or features.  It's an important book that leads us into an important conversation, one that challenges us to live into our oft-stated values around cherishing our children, not just some of them, all of them. About Amanda Freeman and Lisa Dodson: Amanda Freeman is a sociologist with research interests in poverty, social policy, gender, family and education. Her current work explores work family conflict for low income mothers. At the University of Hartford, Professor Freeman teaches a variety of courses including Social Welfare. Lisa Dodson is Research Professor Emeritus at Boston College. She's the author of the books, The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy, and Don't Call Us Out of Name. She lives in Portland, Oregon. For a written transcript of this conversation click here. Action Items:  From Amanda: 1) If you have people working in your home become aware of their lives, their struggles, and just engaging with them as fellow human beings. 2) Join organizations that advocate for domestic workers. 3) Challenge inequitable policies in your workplace that treat salaried and hourly workers differently when it comes to issues such as parental leave. From Lisa: 1) Have conversations about how these workers are compensated and treated in the workplace. 2) Listen to what these women have to say about their lives and the challenges they are facing and then do what we can to address the inequities that they are facing.  Credits: Harmonica music courtesy of a friend.

God doesn't keep score, and He doesn't have a tally sheet. He loves us all, regardless of our story, and He is extravagant in offering grace.

MAKE MORE MONEY. This is the number one piece of advice I give my clients about how to navigate money today. Sounds easy, and the climb is steep for so many women. In this episode, my guest, Lisa Dodson the co-author of Getting Me Cheap - How Low Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty and I are discussing how low wage traps women and girls into poverty and how we can break this trap. I'm looking forward to this conversation and I hope you join us. About my guest: Lisa Dodson is Research Professor Emerita at Boston College. She is the author of The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy and co-author (with Amanda Freeman) of Getting Me Cheap: How Low Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty (both from The New Press) and Don't Call Us Out of Name. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

When Terence got out of prison, he got a job with a powerwash company. It was temporary, but it was a start. The next job was ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. That was seasonal. His best job was in parks and rec with the City of Richmond. It lasted for more than a few years until the City switched contractors and the new corporation cut jobs. Terence kept scrambling for stability, decent wages, benefits, and room for advancement. No one had to tell him to pull himself up by his bootstraps and find a job. But where are the good jobs for people willing to work? Bootstraps is now available on writingourwayout.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Featuring: Terence Scruggs, author of Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail and Victor Tan Chen an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy (https://victortanchen.com/) Check out our website: writingourwayout.com Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WritingOurWayOut Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/writeyourwayout Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/writingourwayout

Wealth and income inequality is a plague ravaging America. Dr Victor Chen, author of "Cut Loose - Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy" and professor of sociology at Virginian Commonwealth University, joins us today to talk about these inequalities. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thejusticereport/message

With widespread shelter-in-place orders shutting down major cities and many states, the U.S. economy has come to an abrupt standstill. And after just five weeks, this COVID crisis has forced more than 26 million Americans to file for unemployment. On this episode of Next Question with Katie Couric, Katie talks to Victor Tan Chen, sociology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and author of “Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy.” Chen explains what makes this unemployment crisis so unprecedented, why it’s underscoring pre-existing inequalities in the labor force and how the pandemic could change the job market — and who it could leave behind. Throughout the episode, we also hear from the people behind the unemployment statistics. Read the Atlantic article ‘The Second Phase of Unemployment Will Be Harsher,’ by Victor Tan Chen and Ofer Sharone. Sign up for Katie Couric’s morning newsletter, Wake-Up Call. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

We are nearly a decade removed from the start of the Great Recession, and many indicators show that the economy is doing relatively well. But during this economic catastrophe, a significant number of people faced long-term unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector. Jobs that were once the picture of stability and security, and that helped form a vibrant post-war middle class in the United States, disappeared as companies downsized, outsourced, and retooled. In his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy (University of California Press, 2015), Assistant Professor of Sociology Victor Tan Chen examines former autoworkers—perhaps the most iconic of blue-collar American jobs—and their experiences with long-term unemployment. Upon getting laid off from their jobs, these workers confront a completely different labor market from what they were used to. No longer can they succeed based solely on hard work—the idea of meritocracy that they have all embraced as an ideal. They learn about the higher education they need, the soft skills many jobs require, the social networks they lack, and the constant self-branding workers must now do. Believing in meritocracy, and in society’s widespread culture of judgment, these workers come to blame themselves for their shortcomings and failure to adapt to the realities of today’s economy. Their lives spiral downward as they cope with strained familial relationships, personal mental illness, and a society that has tossed them aside while simultaneously saying they are to blame for their own problems. Fascinatingly, Chen finds that these conditions and consequences mostly hold true for autoworkers in Canada, which is often lauded for its stronger and broader social safety net, as it does in the United States. With great empathy and astute analysis, Cut Loose shows the human side of economic transformations bereft of sound public policies and collectivist strategies Richard E. Ocejo is associate professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is the author of Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017), about the transformation of low-status occupations into cool, cultural taste-making jobs (cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale mens barbers, and whole animal butchers), and of Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City (Princeton University Press, 2014), about growth policies, nightlife, and conflict in gentrified neighborhoods. His work has appeared in such journals as City & Community, Poetics, Ethnography, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. He is also the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork (Routledge, 2012) and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are nearly a decade removed from the start of the Great Recession, and many indicators show that the economy is doing relatively well. But during this economic catastrophe, a significant number of people faced long-term unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector. Jobs that were once the picture of stability and security, and that helped form a vibrant post-war middle class in the United States, disappeared as companies downsized, outsourced, and retooled. In his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy (University of California Press, 2015), Assistant Professor of Sociology Victor Tan Chen examines former autoworkers—perhaps the most iconic of blue-collar American jobs—and their experiences with long-term unemployment. Upon getting laid off from their jobs, these workers confront a completely different labor market from what they were used to. No longer can they succeed based solely on hard work—the idea of meritocracy that they have all embraced as an ideal. They learn about the higher education they need, the soft skills many jobs require, the social networks they lack, and the constant self-branding workers must now do. Believing in meritocracy, and in society’s widespread culture of judgment, these workers come to blame themselves for their shortcomings and failure to adapt to the realities of today’s economy. Their lives spiral downward as they cope with strained familial relationships, personal mental illness, and a society that has tossed them aside while simultaneously saying they are to blame for their own problems. Fascinatingly, Chen finds that these conditions and consequences mostly hold true for autoworkers in Canada, which is often lauded for its stronger and broader social safety net, as it does in the United States. With great empathy and astute analysis, Cut Loose shows the human side of economic transformations bereft of sound public policies and collectivist strategies Richard E. Ocejo is associate professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is the author of Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017), about the transformation of low-status occupations into cool, cultural taste-making jobs (cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale mens barbers, and whole animal butchers), and of Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City (Princeton University Press, 2014), about growth policies, nightlife, and conflict in gentrified neighborhoods. His work has appeared in such journals as City & Community, Poetics, Ethnography, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. He is also the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork (Routledge, 2012) and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are nearly a decade removed from the start of the Great Recession, and many indicators show that the economy is doing relatively well. But during this economic catastrophe, a significant number of people faced long-term unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector. Jobs that were once the picture of stability and security, and that helped form a vibrant post-war middle class in the United States, disappeared as companies downsized, outsourced, and retooled. In his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy (University of California Press, 2015), Assistant Professor of Sociology Victor Tan Chen examines former autoworkers—perhaps the most iconic of blue-collar American jobs—and their experiences with long-term unemployment. Upon getting laid off from their jobs, these workers confront a completely different labor market from what they were used to. No longer can they succeed based solely on hard work—the idea of meritocracy that they have all embraced as an ideal. They learn about the higher education they need, the soft skills many jobs require, the social networks they lack, and the constant self-branding workers must now do. Believing in meritocracy, and in society’s widespread culture of judgment, these workers come to blame themselves for their shortcomings and failure to adapt to the realities of today’s economy. Their lives spiral downward as they cope with strained familial relationships, personal mental illness, and a society that has tossed them aside while simultaneously saying they are to blame for their own problems. Fascinatingly, Chen finds that these conditions and consequences mostly hold true for autoworkers in Canada, which is often lauded for its stronger and broader social safety net, as it does in the United States. With great empathy and astute analysis, Cut Loose shows the human side of economic transformations bereft of sound public policies and collectivist strategies Richard E. Ocejo is associate professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is the author of Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017), about the transformation of low-status occupations into cool, cultural taste-making jobs (cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale mens barbers, and whole animal butchers), and of Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City (Princeton University Press, 2014), about growth policies, nightlife, and conflict in gentrified neighborhoods. His work has appeared in such journals as City & Community, Poetics, Ethnography, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. He is also the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork (Routledge, 2012) and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are nearly a decade removed from the start of the Great Recession, and many indicators show that the economy is doing relatively well. But during this economic catastrophe, a significant number of people faced long-term unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector. Jobs that were once the picture of stability and security, and that helped form a vibrant post-war middle class in the United States, disappeared as companies downsized, outsourced, and retooled. In his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy (University of California Press, 2015), Assistant Professor of Sociology Victor Tan Chen examines former autoworkers—perhaps the most iconic of blue-collar American jobs—and their experiences with long-term unemployment. Upon getting laid off from their jobs, these workers confront a completely different labor market from what they were used to. No longer can they succeed based solely on hard work—the idea of meritocracy that they have all embraced as an ideal. They learn about the higher education they need, the soft skills many jobs require, the social networks they lack, and the constant self-branding workers must now do. Believing in meritocracy, and in society’s widespread culture of judgment, these workers come to blame themselves for their shortcomings and failure to adapt to the realities of today’s economy. Their lives spiral downward as they cope with strained familial relationships, personal mental illness, and a society that has tossed them aside while simultaneously saying they are to blame for their own problems. Fascinatingly, Chen finds that these conditions and consequences mostly hold true for autoworkers in Canada, which is often lauded for its stronger and broader social safety net, as it does in the United States. With great empathy and astute analysis, Cut Loose shows the human side of economic transformations bereft of sound public policies and collectivist strategies Richard E. Ocejo is associate professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is the author of Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017), about the transformation of low-status occupations into cool, cultural taste-making jobs (cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale mens barbers, and whole animal butchers), and of Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City (Princeton University Press, 2014), about growth policies, nightlife, and conflict in gentrified neighborhoods. His work has appeared in such journals as City & Community, Poetics, Ethnography, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. He is also the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork (Routledge, 2012) and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are nearly a decade removed from the start of the Great Recession, and many indicators show that the economy is doing relatively well. But during this economic catastrophe, a significant number of people faced long-term unemployment, especially in the manufacturing sector. Jobs that were once the picture of stability and security, and that helped form a vibrant post-war middle class in the United States, disappeared as companies downsized, outsourced, and retooled. In his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy (University of California Press, 2015), Assistant Professor of Sociology Victor Tan Chen examines former autoworkers—perhaps the most iconic of blue-collar American jobs—and their experiences with long-term unemployment. Upon getting laid off from their jobs, these workers confront a completely different labor market from what they were used to. No longer can they succeed based solely on hard work—the idea of meritocracy that they have all embraced as an ideal. They learn about the higher education they need, the soft skills many jobs require, the social networks they lack, and the constant self-branding workers must now do. Believing in meritocracy, and in society’s widespread culture of judgment, these workers come to blame themselves for their shortcomings and failure to adapt to the realities of today’s economy. Their lives spiral downward as they cope with strained familial relationships, personal mental illness, and a society that has tossed them aside while simultaneously saying they are to blame for their own problems. Fascinatingly, Chen finds that these conditions and consequences mostly hold true for autoworkers in Canada, which is often lauded for its stronger and broader social safety net, as it does in the United States. With great empathy and astute analysis, Cut Loose shows the human side of economic transformations bereft of sound public policies and collectivist strategies Richard E. Ocejo is associate professor of sociology at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is the author of Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy (Princeton University Press, 2017), about the transformation of low-status occupations into cool, cultural taste-making jobs (cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale mens barbers, and whole animal butchers), and of Upscaling Downtown: From Bowery Saloons to Cocktail Bars in New York City (Princeton University Press, 2014), about growth policies, nightlife, and conflict in gentrified neighborhoods. His work has appeared in such journals as City & Community, Poetics, Ethnography, and the European Journal of Cultural Studies. He is also the editor of Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork (Routledge, 2012) and serves on the editorial boards of the journals Metropolitics, Work and Occupations, and the Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Tasini, author of The Essential Bernie Sanders, speaks Thursday, April 7, 6 p.m., Garey 102. A frequent Sanders surrogate on TV and radio, Tasini has written for The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Business Week, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times. In 2006 Tasini unsuccessfully challenged Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary because of her vote for the Iraq War. Tasini is the author of five books: The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America (2015); It’s Not Raining, We’re Being Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis (2010); The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves and The Looting of America (2009); They Get Cake, We Eat Crumbs: The Real Story Behind Today’s Unfair Economy (1997); and The Edifice Complex: Rebuilding the American Labor Movement to Face the Global Economy (1995). Sponsored by the Writing & Rhetoric Program

Jonathan Tasini, author of The Essential Bernie Sanders, speaks Thursday, April 7, 6 p.m., Garey 102. A frequent Sanders surrogate on TV and radio, Tasini has written for The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Business Week, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times. In 2006 Tasini unsuccessfully challenged Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary because of her vote for the Iraq War. Tasini is the author of five books: The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America (2015); It’s Not Raining, We’re Being Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis (2010); The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves and The Looting of America (2009); They Get Cake, We Eat Crumbs: The Real Story Behind Today’s Unfair Economy (1997); and The Edifice Complex: Rebuilding the American Labor Movement to Face the Global Economy (1995). Sponsored by the Writing & Rhetoric Program

Even years after the end of the Great Recession, thousands who lost their jobs are still unemployed. Victor Tan Chen (Virginia Commonwealth University) in his book, Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy, offers a poignant look at their struggle to support their families, rebuild their lives, and overcome shame and self-blame. Also: After working for Bernie Madoff for 15 years, Andrew Cohen (Old Dominion University) was offered a chance to invest in a “special fund” that Madoff himself managed. You can guess what happened. Now he warns his own students about the pitfalls in his course “Wall Street 101.” Later in the show, There’s a small town in Idaho where prostitution was practiced openly and even embraced, until 1991. Heather Branstetter has been interviewing local residents, discovering who the madams were and what they did to cultivate widespread public acceptance of their work. Plus: If you’ve ever had a coworker write nasty or demeaning emails, undermine your credibility, or give you the silent treatment, you’ve experienced workplace incivility. Dan Davidson and Danylle Kunkel (Radford University) say it affects the bottom line and should be included in performance reviews.

Lisa Dodson, research professor of sociology at Boston College, shares data and stories from her 2011 book "The Moral Underground: How Ordinary People Subvert an Unfair Economy." She describes a growing trend of middle managers and professionals who recognize an unfair economic system and choose to quietly bend or break rules to assist their low-wage employees.