EP 82 THE DEBT EXPLOSION: WHO CARES?
That screaming headline encapsulates America’s changed relationship to the matter of private and public debt. It’s the only way to understand why we’ve all taken on debt–risky mortgages, students loans, sub-prime car loans–you name it, sensing that it’s OK and, in fact, encouraged in our society. Why not? Our public debt requires a constant bumping of the debt ceiling and the numbers are so staggering that they go beyond any true reckoning. How did a nation founded on concepts like Benjamin Franklin’s : ‘Neither a borrower, nor lender be’ end up here. Mark Hendrickson, an economist and fellow for economic and social policy with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, joins me for a freewheeling discussion on the topic
http://www.visionandvalues.org/author/mark-w-hendrickson/
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How well do you know the history of the United States or how the government really works? And do you think you would be capable of passing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization test? We will put a few average Americans to the test along with author, Solomon Skolnick, on this episode. One aspect to this episode is exploring whether what we require of immigrants might not be a good thing to require of citizens born here given our roles in a self-governing democracy. This should be fun and enlightening–and revealing.
Amanda Litman headed up the e-mail operation(not that one)for the Hillary Clinton for President campaign in 2016. She was devastated by the loss but quickly re-grouped to found an organization and write a book encouraging millennials to ‘run for something’ on the state or local level. Thousands have come forward to seek practical advice from her on how a campaign needs to be organized and conducted. We talk to Amanda about the ways millennial’s look at public service and the unique contributions they can make the political offices they seek.
In truth, there is no country on earth that is gender- blind. Men dominate the politics and power around the globe. (Iceland comes closest in being gender- equal.) Catherine Mayer, founder of the Women’s Equality Party in the United Kingdom, imagines what it would be like if women were on the same footing as men so she designs Equalia and takes us there in her book, ‘Attack of the 50 ft. Women’, a title based on a B movie years back. We discuss with her whether the women she writes about could assume positions of power and make changes that undo some of the ‘man-made’ messes of today.
Geoff Dembicki writes about millennials who think ‘gee, we’re going to be around long enough to suffer the dire consequences many climate scientists believe await mankind if we don’t wean ourselves off fossil fuels’. So, he explores what his generation is doing politically to become more active in this arena. And he finds that their impact is already being felt in many ways. You will be surprised at their activism and its effect already in the U.S., Canada and Britain.