The Young Turks - Ana Talks With Ilhan

Episode Date: October 13, 2021

A record-breaking 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August. More than 100,000 workers threaten to strike as unions flex their muscles. During the COVID-19 meltdown, corporate executives pocketed millions in bonuses while their companies went bankrupt. California will ban gas lawn mowers and leaf blowers. Do individual consumer choices matter when combating climate change? Hosts: Ana Kasparian, Rep. Ilhan Omar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome to TYIT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we have a massive show ahead for you all. Really looking forward to the program today where we're going to start with a fantastic interview, followed by incredibly important substantive stories regarding the fact that, you know, the federally subsidized unemployment benefits expired more than a month ago, but more Americans are quitting their jobs. Why? What is motivating them to do so? Some interesting data coming from the

Bureau of Labor Statistics. We'll get into that. We'll also show you just how disastrous the privatized child care model has been, not just for families raising children, but for the economy overall. So we'll get into that as well. And later on in the second hour, John Iderola of the damage report will join me to discuss a January 6th rioter who decided to represent himself in court and ended up getting in a lot of trouble as a result. I'd like to say that's a fun story, although I feel a little bad for the guy. Sometimes it's not so great to have too much confidence in yourself. But before we get to all of that, I am super excited to begin the show today with an interview.

Joining us now is Representative Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman from the state of Minnesota and author of This is What America Looks Like, My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me, Anna. There's so much I want to get into,

but I do want to actually start off with your book and your story because, you know, As someone who did come to the United States as a refugee, you experienced quite a bit, especially in regard to the vetting process that's necessary to allow for refugees to come into the country. And look, as someone who came to the U.S. as a refugee, what are your thoughts about how the United States is responding to asylum seekers at the border today, even under the Biden administration? Yeah. I mean, you know, my story, as you've just mentioned, is uniquely American, right? We are used to processing people. We are used to seeing immigrants and refugees not just at our border, but arriving at our shores as well. And, you know, it's been really saddening to see that we are not holding up.

our ideals of welcoming immigrants with open arms. You know, the United States is supposed to be a pekin of hope. And, you know, the current brokenness of our immigration system really is putting a dim light on that. And it's, you know, important for the administration to really reexamine what, you know, they have to do in order for us to continue to be that country that is seen as a piquant of hope where people do run to and seek refuge. You know, I'm curious why you think this is happening under the Biden administration. I mean, the Trump administration was notoriously brutal when it came to the issue of immigration. And Joe Biden campaigned on decency, on really serving as the antithesis of the

Trump administration. And the facts matter. I mean, when you see what happened to Nigerian asylum seekers at the border recently, it shows that, you know, Biden tends to try to straddle, right, between appeasing the right wing and the fearmongering that they engage in, and also attempting to at least rhetorically appease progressives. What do you think is the calculation behind that? I mean, I think it's just another reminder that, you know, things don't really change regardless of what administration we might be dealing with. And, you know, although this administration promised decency, the way that they are dealing with migrants at our border, has been anything but decent. I think the reality is, you know, obviously the last four years has sort of dismantled many of the processes that we have in regards to welcoming people in our country, whether it is our refugee system or whether it is our system that allows for people to seek asylum, it seems as if we had forgotten that it is an international right for people to seek asylum. We still have a lot of the Trump era policies as part of the policies of this administration.

They actually, instead of overturning it or defending it in court, which is just astonishing and shameful. We obviously know what's happening in regards to children as well as they're being kept in conditions that are also not decent. We have to continue to pressure this administration. We have to continue to speak up for the humanity and dignity of everyone, regardless of how they arrive at our borders. And we have to make sure that people realize that our immigration policy has often had cruelty at its heart. And in many ways, you know, as we have exported this idea of being a pekin of hope, in many ways we can be cruel. And, you know, it is, it's necessary in many ways to continue to advocate for policies that put us in line with our ideals. because as a nation, I think we are a nation of compassion.

We are people who care for one another. And we have to fight the, you know, the urge to politicize everything and to not see human suffering as something that we shouldn't allow as a nation. Right. I mean, the fact that some portion of the country tends to see refugees, and asylum seekers as a threat, even given the fact that much of the U.S. foreign policy that takes place tends to lead to destabilizing regions of the world, tends to lead to these mass migrations of refugees seeking of safety, seeking a future for themselves. And just real quickly, you know, you do talk quite a bit about what the vetting process was

like for you personally. It wasn't a quick vetting process. It took several years. about that a little bit? Yeah, I mean, refugees are the most vetted immigrants, you know, around the world. And especially in the United States, vetting process for refugees takes on average 18 months. You know, it's DNA tests, it's, you know, biometrics, it's, you know, bone density tests. It is just literally everything that you can kind of imagine. It's like massive vaccination process that you have to go through to get vaccinated for everything. It's urine test after urine test.

I mean, it is truly one of the most invasive processes any human can go through. And, you know, it's lost in the political discourse because a lot of people don't understand just how rigorous it is. people will, you know, point to a child who entered this country, you know, when they were one or two, who eventually as an adult commits a crime. And they forget that they were essentially raised by our society. And they didn't, there was no vetting that could have been done to stop a two-year-old from entering this country and eventually becoming a criminal. But that's the example that they will use. They will say, you know, look at this immigrant, this refugee that came to, to the country and has done this, you know, we have to have better processes and there's no, there's

no process that can predict what a two-year-old will grow up to be or a five-year-old will grow up to be. And instead of taking account of them being actually our neighbor and our society, raising them and having a hand in who they ended up being, we blame the process that brought them here, the process that provided safety. And it is, you know, a process again, that is in line with international decency. You know, I entered Kenya illegally because I was fleeing war and devastation. I eventually lived in a refugee camp for four years in Kenya. I can't imagine what would have happened if Kenya closed its borders and said no one is coming in.

And Kenya is not the United States, it's not a wealthy nation. like ours is. And I remember the year we came in, maybe 100,000 people arrived at those borders and were allowed to, you know, seek refuge. I mean, and even here in the United States, if you look back at our history, you know, from 1870 to 1924,

before we started having, you know, the kind of rigorous immigration laws that we now have, millions of people were showing up every single year. Multiple, you know, folks from different nations around the world were coming to our borders. And people didn't have to go through vetting. They didn't have to do anything. They were coming. And that's, you know, that's how we got our name and our simple of being.

a beacon of hope because this was the place where people who were seeking refuge from persecution, from starvation, from, you know, all of the ills that were happening around the world at that time, this is where they would come. But I would also remind you and the viewers, we haven't always been kind to the newest immigrants, right? Even immigrants themselves weren't kind to the newest immigrants. Italian immigrants face backlash, Irish immigrants face backlash, obviously Jewish immigrants face backlash. We've seen what happened to Syrian immigrants. There's obviously a story with Somali immigrants when they came to this country. And, you know, it does sort of, I mean, Chinese immigrants and Japanese immigrants, the list goes on and on.

We've certainly had extremely synophobic laws, too, that were put on the books. There's one that I'm trying to get rid of, which is the Alien Act. I have legislation called Neighbors, Not Aliens Act, and we're trying to get read of that piece of legislation that's still on the books. And so it is, it is, we have, there's a duality in that, right? We have both history of being welcoming, but we also have history of being extremely xenophobic. Yes. And you're- You get it towards certain groups.

And we, you know, have to appeal to our better angels because we are capable of being decent. We are capable of having compassion. We are capable of having empathy and we are capable of welcoming new people as our neighbors. Right. I mean, I think you're absolutely right about that. And what I've noticed is that. typically politicians use these cultural issues, whether it be immigration or nationalistic

rhetoric, in an effort to kind of distract Americans from the fact that they have nothing else to offer. So right now, I think that you're seeing this rise of nationalism in the United States and this pushback against accepting asylum seekers and refugees because of the precarious economic situation that so many people are experiencing. they're looking for a scapegoat and you have certain politicians who provide that scapegoat. But, you know, I think that the passage of robust legislation like the budget reconciliation bill is so incredibly important because really a lot of the societal ills that we're experiencing right now is based on the anger and frustration that Americans across the political spectrum are

feeling as a result of their economic situation. So can you talk about that a little bit? because this debate about the reconciliation bill rages on, there's a possibility that it won't even pass. And I'll get into some specifics in just a minute, but overall, what are your thoughts about how this debate is going? Yeah, I mean, you know, economics has everything to do with the way divisions are manipulated by politicians, right? And instead of me offering you, an economic solution to the economic crisis that you and your family is experiencing. What if I just told you that there's someone else that's getting an economic opportunity and that's who you need to fight and not me for not fulfilling my promise and doing what I need

to do on behalf of you as your legislator? And so that's really what happens in many parts of the world. That's what's happening here in our country. and it's necessary for us to fight for economic policies that are able to sustain people. When we're talking about the build back better agenda, you know, it obviously has solutions to the child care crisis that exists in our communities. It's making it hard for so many families not to be gainfully employed without worrying about their children who's caring for them. or using their whole paycheck to essentially pay for child care. It certainly has paid leave so that you are not at risk of losing your job.

If you are sick, it has, you know, all of these policies that help you care for your elderly family member or your disabled family member in the care economy. you know, policies that address the anxiety that the young people and the future generation have in regards to what kind of future they will inherit, right? Do you feel though, do you, I mean, it is, it's a robust bill, certainly more robust than we've seen from corporate Democrats in recent years. So do you feel the Democratic leadership is really fighting hard enough for this? I mean, Chuck Schumer is the Senate Majority Leader.

And when you compare the way he's handling unifying the caucus, the Democratic caucus versus how Mitch McConnell was able to unify the GOP when he was the Senate majority leader, I mean, it's night and day and pretty frustrating because really voters don't feel that Democrats really have an excuse right now. They have control of Congress. Yes, it's a slim majority, but they could do away with the filibuster if they really wanted to in the Senate. You have the executive branch dominated by the Democratic Party. getting pretty fed up. They're like, hey, we did what we were supposed to do. We rallied in support the Democratic Party that campaigned on all of these promises. And now we're hearing all these excuses about a Senate parliamentarian, about Mansion and Cinema. Do you think that Democratic leadership is fighting hard enough on this issue? I mean, what we have to remember is that we did make a promise to the American people and they helped deliver the House, the Senate, and the White House to us. And if we don't fulfill the promises that we made to the them that made that possible. We're not going to have the majority in the House and in the Senate,

and we're not going to be able to get anything accomplished. The fact that we have set a strategy as the Progressive Caucus in saying, we want the full agenda of the build back better agenda. And, you know, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the president himself, are all walking in lockstep with us really says that for the first time there is some some unity and cohesion in trying to accomplish this this agenda now we have you know some members who are an outliers actually in in our caucus both in the Senate and in the house and and I think you know it's time for us to to get serious with them and say you have to get on board, this agenda is too important to fail to the American people.

And one final question for you because I know you have to go and thank you for being so generous with your time. You know, President Joe Biden is attempting to placate, to appease the corporate Democrats in the Senate, namely Kirsten Cinema and Joe Manchin, by lowering the price tag associated with the budget reconciliation bill to the tune of $2 trillion as opposed to $3.5 trillion. What does the Progressive Caucus proposed to do if Democratic leadership does, in fact, move forward with cutting the price tag on that bill? Do you guys plan to continue standing your ground and vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill? Or are you willing to negotiate and lower the price tag associated with the reconciliation bill?

Yeah. So the way that we ended up getting to the $3.5 trillion price stack is by looking at the priorities that we've had and calculating how much money will go into funding each priority and for how long. And so I think that there is some room to look at the length of the priorities and how long they will be funded. I think we have been very clear. that we are not willing to negotiate against ourselves. We are not leaving families and children behind. And it's gonna be really important for every single priority that we have laid out to be funded regardless of what the price stack ends up being. Representative Omar, thank you so much for your time and thank you for fighting for all the right causes

and doing so fearlessly despite the threats against you. It's really a pleasure to see it. because it's very rare to see politicians fight on behalf of the American people as opposed to American corporations. So thank you again for joining us. Thank you for fighting and representing the best interests of the very people who put you in your position of power. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, Anna. I always say it's easy when you are fighting for the people you love and for the policies that will uplift them.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much and hope to speak to you again soon. All right, everyone, we're going to take a brief break. And when we come back, we've got some news for you, including some pretty staggering numbers regarding the amount of Americans who are walking away from their jobs, even as the federally subsidized unemployment benefits have expired. We'll be right back. back to TYT, let's get into some of these latest Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers,

because turns out more and more Americans are quitting. The great resignation continues. A new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that a whopping 4.3 million Americans decided to quit their jobs in August. And guess what? That trend continues, even though the federally subsidized unemployment benefits expired more than a month ago. So what's going on here? Now in August, some 892,000 workers quit accommodation and food services jobs and 721,000 quit retail positions, and that's according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The healthcare sector also took a hit. 534,000 U.S. workers resigned or quit from health care and social assistance positions. And no, the healthcare workers didn't quit due to vaccine mandates.

They quit because they're overworked, understaffed, and they want better working conditions. They want better pay. In fact, I'll get to that in just a second. But first, a few more figures for you. Meanwhile, the 7.7 million people who remain unemployed aren't, for the most part, jumping at the roughly 10.4 million job openings, leaving businesses, or business after business with help wanted placards in their windows. And I'm pretty sure that you can see it. If you're taking a walk in town, you'll notice those signs at windowsills. And people are like, well, what's going on? Why are people going back to work? I mean, everyone was so certain it had to do with the federally subsidized unemployment benefits, right? Everyone was so

that it was because Americans were just lazy, they were couch potatoes, they don't want to go back to work, and that the federal government was enabling them to do it. But it turns out that is not the case. Americans want better pay, they want better working conditions, and they need child care. Something that's offered through the budget reconciliation bill, which of course has a shaky future considering the fact that we have bought off corporate Democrats in the Senate that are standing in the way of the passage of that bill. So again, let me just really emphasize the point that those unemployment benefits had nothing to do with workers and their hesitation in taking these low paying jobs. In fact, Mark Zandi from Moody's analytics says, I'm sure that some economists someday digging through some data will be able to prove there was some effect on the margin of the supplemental unemployment insurance. But it's really on the margins. On the top 10 list of reasons why people have been slow to get back to work, that might be number 10. Now, why are people refusing to go back to work? Why are people quitting?

Well, why don't we hear from the workers themselves? In the last year, the rate at which workers ages 30 to 45 resigned rose by over 20%. Some of the hardest hit sectors, health care and tech. The specific reasons, first and foremost, perhaps, burnout. Your staffing is at an all-time low. The morale is at an all-time low. It's traumatic, it's stressful. We're at a breaking point.

We don't want to do this anymore. They just didn't care about me anymore. I'm done. I am not working here anymore. I don't feel safe. Workers like these are quitting their jobs at the highest rate in 20 years. Because for many of us, the pandemic has prompted a professional reassessment. So says Harvard Business School, Sidal Neely.

We cannot underestimate the extent to which people have experienced such stress, such anxiety, and a ton of burnout in the last 18, 19 months. That is also driving their interest to say, I don't want this lifestyle as it is. I want to change it. They don't like that lifestyle. They want to change it. And remember, when everything was shut down in the beginning of the pandemic, and Americans were home, either they were working from home or they were just home spending more time with their families, that gave them an opportunity to really reimagine what life could be like if they had a little more say, a little more power in the workplace, if they had a little more time to themselves, time for hobbies, time for cooking. I mean, think about the amount of time the average American worker puts into his or her job or several part-time jobs just to make a lot of time. ends meet and how much time is really left over for that worker on any given day to manage their

personal lives. I mean, there's still that component of life as well, whether it's grocery shopping, taking care of your kids and all that, or to just do something enjoyable. And think about basically having to do that day after day for pay that doesn't actually cover the costs that you need to pay for, things like child care, for instance. And that continues to be a huge problem. In April of 2021 alone, 64,000 female workers left the job force. And part of the reason why, or massive reason why is because they could not afford child care. And that's something that needs to be fixed and something we'll get into more detail later on in the show. But what's also fascinating to see is that workers, for the first time in literally

decades, have some leverage. So when it comes to the workers who are refusing to go back to work, they have some demands. They want flexibility, they want better pay, better working conditions. But what about the workers who are still employed? Turns out that we're starting to see some organizing taking place. It's actually pretty effective. And I want to give you a few examples. More than 100,000 unionized employees between Hollywood production crews, John Deere factory workers, and even Kaiser Permanente health care workers, are threatening to strike unless they get better contracts that offer better pay, better treatment, better working conditions. And guess what? They're able to do that because for the first time in such a long time, they have the leverage to do so.

So let's go into the details of that. So in a near unanimous vote, unions representing more than 24,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and other healthcare workers in California and Oregon, Authorized a potential strike after contract negotiations stalled. Roughly 38,000 Kaiser workers have now authorized their union leaders to call a strike if necessary. So what they're asking for is, in my opinion, totally rational. Think about what healthcare workers have gone through during this pandemic. They want better pay. In the case of these Kaiser nurses, they're asking for a 4% increase, annual raise. as a result of this new contract, right?

Now, the offer was only 1% in an annual raise. And so the workers are like, no, we're not accepting that contract. We want something better. The employers also wanted to create this two-tiered system where the current Kaiser workers would be paid better than new Kaiser workers, meaning that the new contracts wouldn't apply to new employees. And I really commend the nurses here for rejecting that because they do not want to create a two-tiered system. They want solidarity in the workplace and they demand better.

So there's a possibility that tens of thousands of Kaiser nurses could strike unless these negotiations move forward in a positive way. John Deere workers, we're talking about factory workers. More than 10,000 of them could walk out after overwhelmingly voting to reject a new contract negotiated between the farm. equipment manufacturer and United Auto Workers over the weekend. Now let's get into some specifics here because they were offered a pretty significant pay raise. However, they're demanding more and it makes a lot of sense given how much this company has made in revenue. So 90% of the union's members rejected the proposal that would provide immediate 5 to 6% raises for most workers. Workers said the pay raises were inadequate given that John Deere is expected to make

nearly six billion. That's with a B, six billion in profits this year. That's not revenue, that's profits. That means after John Deere pays everyone, pays their bills, you know, cost of operating, all that, after all of that is said and done, they make or made six billion dollars in profits alone. No, no, you got to give the workers more pay. Because you can't produce that kind of revenue, you can't produce that kind of profit. without the workers, period. And I love the fact that they're standing their ground on this issue. And then there are the 60,000 workers in the entertainment industry who are represented by Ayatzi.

And they're demanding better working conditions. Let me give you the details on that. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is demanding more time for meal breaks and sleep, along with better wages and an end, I love this part, to lower pay for workers who help produce streaming shows. Both sides want to avoid a strike, but would shut down the production of popular TV shows and movies, which would, of course, shut down the popular production of TV and movies. Look, again, the solidarity that's a common theme throughout the various strike threats here is really something that I'm happy to see, right? The unwillingness to create these two-tiered pay systems within these companies, I think it's incredibly important. And what's also really great to see is that for the first time in a long time in this country,

we're seeing widespread support for organized labor. A gallop poll from September shows that Americans' approval of unions is at a 60-year high, with more than two-thirds of those surveyed and 77% of Americans ages 18 to 34 voicing support for organized labor. Look, these employers thought they could just do whatever they want. create a situation where workers are desperate and they have no choice but to take any job they can and get away with it. But I guess the silver lining in this incredibly awful and tragic pandemic is that it created a situation where workers kind of woke up. They were shaken out of their complacency and they realized that they have some leverage. All they need to do is really organize

and use the leverage they have to demand better working conditions and better pay. And I love to see it. And I especially love to see all of those congressional bums who called for an end, a premature end to the unemployment benefits because they thought it was making workers lazy. I'm happy to see that they're proven wrong now. But will they admit that they were wrong? No. Because of course they're paid by their corporate donors to just repeat what their corporate donors want. And that's the fact that, hey, we got to make these workers desperate. We can't make them comfortable. We don't want to pay them more than what the unemployment benefits offer them. So just end the unemployment benefits. Let's make them so desperate that they have to take

our crappy jobs. No, workers aren't going to stand for it, and I love to see it. All right, we got to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about childcare and compare the United States to other countries in that regard. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to TYT, DJ Bart Kyle on the ones and twos. Edwin Umania managing the stage. We got a great show, don't we? We got a great crew, great show, really looking forward to sharing more news with you. Let's talk about failing upward, you know, the antithesis of what we've all been sold in our lifetimes about how America's meritocracy.

It's all bull. Now, some of the nation's largest retailers filed for bankruptcy in 2020, which is understandable. I mean, 2020 was when the pandemic started. 2020 is when consumer spending went down considerably. People aren't going to stores. They're not purchasing items. So those bankruptcies are understandable. But when you file for bankruptcy, maybe it doesn't make any sense to also simultaneously pay your executives massive bonuses.

And that's what's been going on. And I'm here to share the details about it. So a government accountability office report found that about 7,300 companies filed for bankruptcies as the COVID-19 pandemic was in its first act. Of course, 70 asked courts for permission to give retention or inventive bonuses to keep leaders in their roles. And of course, judges agreed. Now listen, as we know, there was all sorts of assistance given to businesses in this country during the pandemic. That seemed to be the top priority for our congressional leaders.

They wanted to ensure that they made these businesses whole with forgivable loans as long as they don't fire their employees. And there were a lot of businesses that did not go bankrupt. There were businesses that found ways to adapt to the fact that people were staying at home. But what's fascinating about this is, if you're going bankrupt, it means that you are unable to pay your debts. Now if you're an average American and you're unable to pay your debts, we know how the elite tend to think of you, right?

But the elite apparently not only failed to pay their debts, when they file for bankruptcy, they turn around and pay themselves a considerable amount of money. So in 2020, amid the pandemic, 630 companies declared bankruptcy. The highest count since 2010. We had all heard about the court-approved bonuses for five executives at bankrupt Purdue Farm. Hungry now. Now? What about now?

Whenever it hits you, wherever you are, grab an O. Henry Bar to satisfy your hunger. with delicious combination of big, crunchy, salty peanuts covered in creamy caramel and chewy fudge with a chocolatey coating. Swing by a gas station and get an O'Henry today. Oh hungry, oh Henry. Totaling $7.1 million last year. You couldn't miss the $16 million in bonuses Hertz paid to keep its management team in place as it drove... or drove, yeah, it drove into bankruptcy last year. So you want to retain your executives who failed the company and had to file for bankruptcy.

Okay, I mean, retaining failures, I guess is a great idea. But like paying them, like $7.1 million. I mean, it's unbelievable. The average bonus was roughly $701,000. The top bonus was $13.3 million. And that was just what came after the companies went to court looking to have their debts eliminated. So some more specific figures that I think is worth sharing with you guys. There's Hertz CEO Paul Stone who received the $700,000.

Chuck E.C.C.C. C.E.C. C.E.C. C.E.C. P.E.C.P.E.C.P.E.O., just to name a few. I just want to ask average Americans, if you fail at your job, if you're mismanaging your job, does your boss give you a bonus for that? Do you get rewarded for failing? And I'd also love to know what happened to the workforce for these companies. I'm sure they got laid off. I'm sure their pay was cut. I'm sure their pay was awful to begin with. Now, more details in the before window, other companies shoehorned in 165 million in pre-bankruptcy bonuses, adding to the company's debts as it legally permitted. In fact, 42 of the 70 companies also gave those retention bonuses in the last five months of pre-bankruptcy operations.

One such bonus came two days before declaring bankruptcy. But this is all okay, this is all legal, right? The judges approve it. And therein lies the real issue, right? When we talk about how this economic system is rigged against the ordinary worker, this is what we're talking about. When you have a system in place, a power structure in place that allows those at the very top to fail upward, to pay themselves an insane amount of money, amount of money, while the very people who actually engage in the hard work necessary to generate the income, the revenue, the profits for the company get shafted.

It happens time and time again. And the only thing that really changes that is focusing on the power dynamic in the workplace. I mean, union representation is at an all time low right now, which means that workers are not organized, they don't have the ability to have a seat at the table. in demand, better pay, better working conditions. And so yeah, of course, CEOs, executives, they get away with these massive bonuses, even as they're failing. And how are they getting away with it?

Well, attorneys interviewed by the government accountability office said the Bankruptcy Abuse Act is less than effective because companies have found a way to work around it. Giving retention bonuses overall is problematic, they said, because it effectively reduces the amount of money a company could be paying toward its debt. I mean, they're deadbeats, absolute deadbeats. They don't pay their debts, they file for bankruptcy, but they simultaneously pay themselves millions of dollars. It's absolutely sick.

And then you think about that in the context of a system that does not allow students to get rid of their student loan debt if they file for bankruptcy. Because students are powerless, they're the little guys, who cares? The bankruptcy bill codified that. By the way, the bankruptcy bill was championed by our very own president, Joe Biden. But you know, I'm sure if you ask him about it, he'll tell you to give him a break. But no, he doesn't deserve a break. Because he's part of what has enabled this rigged economic system. And these executives, should absolutely be called out for it. All right, well, let's get to child care since I promised that earlier.

And I think this is honestly the story that should be the focus of the labor shortage and everything that we're experiencing right now in the economy. The lack of affordable and accessible child care is holding women back from reentering the job market. In fact, 64,000 women left the job market in April of this year alone. Now, compared to other nations in the world, child care, the child care system in the United States is really awful. It's far behind. I mean, when you look at other developed nations, we fall behind on education, we fall behind on health care. We land to the free, though, right?

Work yourself to the bone, and you get very little in return. Now, in the United States, federal, state, and local governments spend about $1,000 a year on care for low income children ages two and under, and $200 on other toddlers for children under three, only the poorest working families qualify for subsidies, but fewer than one in six receive the help. By the way, Bill Clinton's welfare reform had quite a lot to do with that. Now, the only government support for early care comes from the child and dependent care tax credit. It benefits higher earners most. The average credit is 500. $186 and $124 for the lowest earners.

Wow, whoa, I mean, it looks like it crazy, that credit, that credit. And when you look at the cost of childcare, you'll understand how ridiculous that social safety net really is. Now you go to other developed nations and they're killing it. They're killing it because they have better priorities than we have here in this country that's dominated by corporate interests. Which countries contribute an average of $14,000 per year for a toddler's care? Wealthy countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development spend an average of 0.7% of GDP on childcare. In Europe, new parents have paid leaves of 14 months. Okay, let's stop for a second. It's not that parents can take 14 months off and not get fired.

It's that parents can take 14 months off and they get paid during that time off so they can raise their kids. So they can take care of an infant, they can recover, women can recover after giving birth. They can be there for the child in the early stages of that child's life. I mean, these are things that are already being done and they're working in other countries. And by the way, we actually have a history during FDR's administration of providing universal health care. So we know that we can do it and it can work.

But of course, we have corporate interests that don't want to pay their fair share of taxes that would essentially fund federally subsidized child care for Americans. But let me give you more details. Since American families get so little support from our federal government for child care, They're high cost associated. The burden is on them to use their household income on childcare. The Treasury Department reported last month, for instance, that the average cost of care is roughly $10,000 a year per child and consumes about 13% of family income, nearly twice

what the government considers affordable. In fact, the average family with two children spends on average, 22% of their household income on childcare. So when you put it on context, right, when you look at the fact that wages have remained stagnant in the United States since the 1970s, and then you look at the high cost of child care in America, can you understand why women have decided maybe it doesn't make sense for me to go to work, maybe I should stay home instead? And that does create a precarious, awful situation for families because they need income. And it's impossible to live in a single income household. But what's the point of going to work if 100% of your paycheck is going to go

to child care? And at the same time, by the way, workers in these child care centers are quitting because they're underpaid and overworked. And they're not appreciated. They make less money than public school teachers make. Now, the reconciliation bill is supposed to help provide a solution to that. I'll get to those details in a second. But let's Let's take a good hard look at where the United States really stands or what ranks in terms of the happiest countries in the world for 2021. The very top of that list is Finland, which by the way has banned privatized education and had great results.

They're also incredibly supportive of families ensuring that families can have children and they won't find themselves in economic ruin as a result of that. And you've got Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden. Oh, wow, would you look at that? Top seven happiest countries in the world and the United States isn't in it. I wonder why. And the U.S. spends less for child care than any other developed country. Let's take a look at this fun chart.

United States at the very end. But Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden. I mean, we live in the richest country in the world. We have the resources to do it. And as I mentioned earlier, we did do this once. During World War II, when men had to go fight the war, women filled their jobs as factory workers. I mean, across a broad array of jobs, they were taking those jobs. And the government realized, hey, you know what, we have a responsibility to provide childcare as these mothers are working.

And so while we hear the business community whine constantly about the labor shortage, maybe they should consider supporting the budget reconciliation bill, which offers universal pre-K, which offers federally subsidized child care, ensuring that Americans can easily go to work without worrying about the cost of child care, it's amazing how much that bill would positively impact the overall economy and how the business community still fights against it because they're so short-sighted that the only thing that matters, the only priority is tax cuts. But how are you going to make money if your workers can't show up to work because they don't know what to do with their kids? You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Society is collapsing because of the sheer greed. And what's really unfortunate about it is that these short-sided, awful people are being empowered, enabled by corporate Democrats in the Senate, people like Joe Manchin and Kirsten Cinema. So I'm not really interested in hearing cinema cry about being hounded by activists who just want some answers about why she turned their backs or turned her backs on them. I don't really care about that. It's about time that these lawmakers actually listen to the best interests of their own constituents instead of run away from them to go back to their state for fundraisers as we're dealing with

multiple crises simultaneously during a pandemic. All right, we got to end the first hour. But when we come back, John Iderola will join me. We'll talk a little bit about Gavin Newsom's, in my opinion, not so great climate change policies, and more. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t.

I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.