allow me and us to publish the audio. and i could eat the everybody.

i am part of the event staff here and i would like to remind you of some things. and then you don't want your phone to go off on c-span. second, please use the microphone. there is only one and it is over here. and please hold up your chairs and place them again somethingng solid. iai am of to introduce a list for. >> writing a bimonthly column for the guardian and her work appears frequently included atlantic and the new york times and the nation.

and those that can barely afford to raise children and with those just getting by that parenthood is financially overwhelming to everyone except and from necessary policy shifts professionally and politically valuable. one -- she chronicles the dangerous lies of financial instability and squeezed his journalism at itss best. searching for answers. and to where attention should be paid. and with that economic hardship profit with equality now please join me to welcome

melissa and barbara. [applause] >> i am barbara and i will introduce a little money --dash alissa little bit more. i started something called the economic hardship report and project which is this. >> before alyssa came along we were floundering in many ways. and i take a lot of the blame. i am not able to manage or figure out projects. or articles or essays. >> what were you trying to do?

but the idea was that we would raise money to pay the income people, journalists generally. because nobody else pays for anymore. and with the contraction of the newsws since 2051 of the jobs that are lost and we are seeingng people's those that will also turn in a two or 3000 turn in a two or 3000 pay you $75 for that? it impossible.

and then as the photojournalist. >> which way is the standard 1995? [laughter] we have no problem attracting who want to do this. but one of them came as an editor and she was not only an editor but a writer. and i don't want to sound machiavellian that she took over the organization.n. she is the executive editor. she has the vision and

imagination with that incredible energy to work with soso many people but yet a lot of answer most of this comes out with discussion that we would talk about something like takes care of the immigrant panties aldrin while she working for the white people? and one mom who was separating from her son from 21 -- for ten years very common story that she was taking care of

middle-class people can and what that experience is like. and then in turn become a caregiver for other people's children. >> you will find it is a pleasure to be as well as very instructive. >> i have a lot of questions.

but in general or specifically mothers and the home health aid. so what is wrong with this kind of work to get so little respect or paid? >> yes. what i would say i was reporting and i was embedded

in the 24 hour day care facility and not know how many people know about that but and now 90% of caregiving is off hours and weekend and allied centers have popped up to fulfill that need. so the people that are working with those nannies that have left their kids overseas but it is the devaluing of care and gender and race but i also think it is a trap.

>> there are middle-class mom's and dad. so it is complicated but we demonize care and that is different what do we care about care? so to separate love and money and that we imagine that we don't need to be paid or interested in many and parents fool themselves and that is out of the goodness of their heart and that is complicated. >> and nursing was originally thought to be an instinct. you just paid him a tiny bit?

>> it is a prisoner of love very to work for very little money. and that are commonly depends on that and what is very upsetting to me and the you are perceived to be pregnant your boss may start ignoring you. but then forget about it. it used to be a one point then

the plans to raisepo a child with the contributions of society. >> may be the motherhood penalty you have heard of that there is a survey that he went to pay mother employees $11000 as a hypothetical less than childless women or men. so there is worldview and the town has even experienced that. but actually i argue it is the opposite with the motherhood

advantage and then to focus that people tell me about. so every time you are penalize that there may be an advantage to my and for the most part i don't think this is from the workplace. [laughter] >> i did a journalistic experiment and went looking for the corporate job. >> is this faith and switch? with white-collar jobs.

and then i changed to the maiden name. and i start off with a resume to have a challenge not that i was the writer but all the things they have done with the activities as the pta to organize this and that. any experience that you have bad parent is not relevant to your employment. >> and then as a worker that

in mind. >> so i'm wondering what you think it never occurred to me to ask this but with the penalty why are we doing that? there are women in their 30s that are desperate why? make to be very happy mother and grandmother. you have children for those like angelina jolie? and that depends.

like you are a representative of your agee group. >> that is a question we have to tour out there. >> and it is very bleak. let's not go there. >> at another kind of question is this really you?

the struggles for the educated but with the story of life but i do want to flip this fact because dca difference from these accounts? from those that you look at? >> but one that shows stability and unity to get the kid through college and they can get a profession and everything would be okay. now those professions are crumbling. certainly those that have

excess lawyers. in all the other states there are too, too many lawyers to go around. a lot of people who had law school that and they are not and could not sustain it. this is a key change the way of thinking of the middle-class person but the image of the 50s 60s like richard eight everybody tried to escape from that trap that can we ever get there? can we ever have a humdrum

life? commute is half an hour and not an hour and a half.ho and changing what we think. >> look at college another admired profession but most of the teaching that i go with 40% i would be willing to tolerate 50% but there is a large t number of adjunct and it presumes if you don't know they are temporary teachers who don't have tenure or permanent positions that are renewable. and make $3000 per class and 62% made $20000.

we're talking about after graduate school and i documented one of them it was foodhard she was on stamps and since i have written this i'm getting reports from people they ask if they can go to the food bank at the college. we need to go. this was two days ago. the candies are the kinds of stories, should any of us be doing what we love? with the interest of the humanities? butth the switch was about the

crisis corporate workers. but no. they can be gone at any time. >> this leads to a harder question. do. follow your passion, you know. find out the color of your parachute. [laughter] but now, after reading this, i thought maybe that's the wrong thing to say.

but i can't in good conscience, if you go get a job as an assistant departmental manager for x corporation, you will be safe. i can't say that either. so what do we say? >> i do have solutions in the book but i think part of what we do is make people aware of what they're getting into. i tend to think awareness at least makes people less probable to self blame and self-hatred and all of the things - - why is this not working out? people are writing to me saying, why didn't i get that second job. but you tell me not to do that and i'm listening. that's what i want. then from there, look for more systematic problems. what is underlying this. how many administrators are in the university system. there is now these adjunct rights organizing movements.

one of it is tenure for the social good. if anyone is in academia, i can tell you more about it. they are organizing around this. i had this idea you go to u.s. news and world report and you say, put in how many adjuncts teach. put in how little they're getting paid. there is a sense of prestige and appearances and if that was tarred and feathered. i wonder if there are certain ways to put pressure on these institutions and the corporate overlords of these industries. i know these are technically nonprofits but we know that's not entirely true. can we put pressure on them? and once we've overcome the

sense that it's us, only us, our fault that this isn't working out. can we look out and start doing things. >> that's an important point you make again and again to the reader, it's not your fault. this is not because you are stupid or not created enough. >> not that you didn't work hard enough or did the wrong thing. i think there is so much language amongst liberal and conservative circles. what if we've done as much as we can? >> i don't know how many more minutes? okay. five minutes. we can consider some of the political aspects and the outcomes. is there a chance for building an alliance between the squeezed professional couple and their nanny?

because your book puts them in the same. >> together. i did on purpose because i wanted to show a continuum of class instability. of what i call this shaken category of the middle class resembles the - - in many ways in terms of contingency, hours, lack of security in old age. why don't we start thinking about reframing it so that there can be more organizing around these two groups? the election that alexandria oo asio, this appears to be what happened. these hipster, millennial latinos. in the area that were both voting her in and voting out -

- the, don't say it. and i felt like this is potentially helpful to think. i know occupied did not function entirely but to think about having a middle picture- organizing around their own instability and recognizing it. if you can name it as a class problem other than your problem, then you will recognize the similarity that you might have to others. that's the point of my book really. >> it will take some effort to bridge class differences like the wealthy employers or the seemingly wealthy employers. >> even the mothers and fathers with nannies.

>> to the people they employ. >> we just wrote a piece together in this week's - - book taking this point around #metoo. we talked about an organization called hand-in-hand. it's a small organization but it's kind of inspiring in this way. i mention in my book as well, they had parents and nannies kind of together in this group. working together. to have higher wages but also better household morays. cooking your food. believe it or not, people don't like when caregivers cook food that is aromatic in their kitchen. that kind of thing where you have a recognition of the intimacy and humanity of this relationship as well as what a

decent wage is. so that's a great organization. it's a tiny start. >> there's a lot of problems in connecting. >> we are hoping many of you will have that element. >> when we were writing about the #metoo movement, as we were emphasizing really should be a movement of working-class women. because for most abused and assaulted women workers in this country are hotel housekeepers. agricultural workers was a surprise to me. and cleaning people. there's been very little outreach to bring them in to the #metoo movement. not enough anyway. >> so we're hoping there will

be more. also the recognition was having your career derailed which is what many of the for hire echelon #metoo people are worrying about. they're not thinking of a career. there thinking i need to get paid and i don't want to be deported and i don't want to be raped. more severe stuff. but we can still make connections between these two conditions. >> okay. i guess this will be the last question i have before i let you all loose on alissa. there was an article in the new york times just a couple days ago suggesting that some of the kinds of frustrations and discontent that went into the trump phenomenon and his election might also account for the election of alexandria

ocasio-cortez. if that is true, that is very interesting. it's an interesting way to begin to look at something. do you see some chances for alliance across that gap? that political gap. >> yeah, i hope so. i'm happy to be a small pebble. i'm hoping that's what my book will be useful for. that's one of the things i'm hoping people wereout there for policy people can take it places that i as a journalism or author chance. that's my hope. >> does anybody want to come up? choose a microphone and ask a question. it doesn't have to be a question. it can be an answer. [chuckle]

>> thank you for coming. in the federal reserve, we've had so much quantitative easing which is printing money. has that helped us, the local people? i feel that we are just spinning our wheels in the federal reserve is just printing money. >> i don't know. we will think about it but we don't have an answer at the moment. we will come up with an answer for you. if you give us your email, we will get ananswer for you . >> according to the charitable

trust, our fertility rate in america is 1.8 which means were in a situation of population decline. my question is, are people aware of this and is anybody besides me concerned that we are an endangered species? >> i think the overall issue, not about the u.s. but worldwide, we have achieved populations that our distant ancestors could have never imagined. in fact, we may have went too far. too many people on the roads, too many people competing for housing, etc. but this is something to take into account when we decide to have children or not. >> i think people are, at least some of my subjects. thank god i only have one. they make - - about that.

my book isn't about fertility but it factors into my own decision too to have one child. >> i think some of the reasons for that decline in american fertility are in this book, "squeezed". >> yes. >> hello. the problem is so big and the progress we're making is so slow that we are really in trouble. we don't have a format of economics and statistics to even indicate what's going on now. we are at a loss to understand it so were not getting the solutions. we are not dealing with distributional wealth. for not dealing with cash flow through the economy and how jobs in the future. okay, so do you see any place where this kind of thing is starting to take place?

where the planning and the economic overview of what's happening to our culture is starting to be retooled so that we understand what's happening to us? >> i've seen a lot of smaller things like platform cooperative is- - it's a moveme to rethink corporate acts like uber worker owned apps that are collective collected so that people are part of the court then possess part of the share of it. i think one huge problem is the gig economy. it has created a new ownership class. that would be one small thing i think is really useful. a lot of it is broader stroke things but i spent time at a co-op.

i talked to a lot of people into universal basic income who were ubi enthusiasts. that was interesting too. i think that's a potential solution which is probably impossible. >> do you want to explain what that is? >> it's an allowance for every family. it would be $12,000-$20,000 a year per se and it would provide an offset job losses for automation. daycare costs. as i write in my book, many of the families i spoke to were middle-class spent at least 30 percent of their take-home pay on daycare. new york was, sometimes up to 38 percent. so it would be like this has been this problem. or adjunct that had a disabled

son she had to care for him. how basically it will allow - - but it's actually supported on the right as well which is interesting. a lot of libertarians too, not just progressives. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> i'm a mother of one child who is now 43 and has twins. one of the phenomenon and part of the reason i only had one child was so that it would not be an impediment to my career and i had a very good career. but, one of the phenomenon you haven't addressed at all is the role of grandmothers and grandparenting. and that's critical among middle-class families.

i said to my daughter, i will help you in a pinch but i'm not going to spend my time babysitting during my semi retirement years. but i have a lot of friends who are committed to monday and tuesday and wednesday and thursday or they split with the in-laws four days a week and their retirement is geared to taking care of the grandchildren. what are the economic implications of that? part of it is certainly that when i babysit or my friends be busy, there's no cost involved. there's cost to me and my life but there's no economic cost to my daughter and son-in-law. they're typical middle-class, both professional, family in this town. >> thank you for bringing that up. i'm one of those committed grandmas who's always available.

we go ona notice to the perpetuation of this class. >> maybe it's something for you to write about. >> yeah, okay. i take that as an assignment. >> - - just wrote a book about it. >> she did and it came out mother's day last year. yeah, the joy of grandmother ng or something like that. >> i think barb's book would be different.[laughter] ...

>> workers are probably around minimum wage give or take. why is this such a differentiation between the childcare providers get and how much the family has to pay? and second you talked about this before but who is taking care of their kids? talk about that. the people who ran the daycare their kids were very involved in daycare. that was in their house so

talking to six or seven other caregivers they left their kids at home with a grandparent. but then they are separated from their kids. it is local daycare's that are even cheaper so to talk about the global care chain within the neighborhood. like where there is informal daycare or unstable and informal networks. so takes care that andy's kid? >> yeah there question is talk

about this as an afterthought and we don't have a good family leave or the support that other countries give their working families. what country does it right? is there a model that we can examine? and is there a movement to integrate those best practices? mimic you must be a journalist. [laughter] those are really good. before you go, what was the first? i don't want to say denmark and sweden but also québec people pay between seven and $20 per week it is very small

amounts of money. because they tax there's more that is right across the border. >> we cannot pay attention to those that we cannot learn from them? how can we get anything from canada? they are exotic left this is a tremendous american air again but to always have a social safety to deal with these problems so much better than we do and all northern

european countries. >> in 1871 nixon would sign and asked or pass something to give substantial amount of child care people then he vetoed it. i love these moments in history that are more progressive than ours and and people say this is impossible that this happened in 1971. i thank you for making these dynamics visible and those who work on this issue will take it back to look at policy and other changes but as you were talking i was thinking about and increase them what they call the depth of despair and

your comments about the internalization people think it's about them individually or to transcend classic economic challenges or structures locking them into create a freefall. what have you seen in those conversations? is that as policy or do they internalize that about their inability to transcend? and for me this is high to the rags to riches that propels people forward but it is poisonous to believe that to a certain degree i am curious

what you find in that. >> a lot of people that i spoke to blame themselves with this internalize self-doubt and some of this and i said this before but also blaming the other and it's like two sides of the same coin so what's wrong with me? i want to cancel myself out sometime i would talk to the subject. and explaining what happened. but a number of them wound up okay in the end so it's not

force they are living the american dream they are on dry land i don't know what that is attributed to that to get out of that patient fatigue you know what that is? it is the exhaustion where you can't make choices and i think now that affects the class in the way i did not use to pass you cannot take it clearly you cannot me at clear of choices you don't know what the future will hold so some people got into another position to make better choices be back in my

home country we have our own economic problems there is an agency to spanish government one of the main outcome and in a way of expectation so in your research have found any sense of the american middle class? because they try to its way why they don't have enough time to be or working out for many hours spending as much time as they should with the

kid even while they vote for those extreme political parties. >> i love that that is what you see 40% of people look on nontraditional hours in america didn't mean there working at night it could be very part time but it probably does need anxiety just not to have that regularity. >> or where you are on call? we don't know what your hours will be.

the american people to help with homework because they come home at strange hours so the kids were doing more poorly in school that was another finding. the next first of all your book nickels and dimes of the first book of nonfiction i ever read so thank you but your book squeezed if you go online it is side-by-side and his thesis is not book is that there is so many people employee during who knows what and that is the interesting idea to ask for to be overeducated but still poor. but i just graduated from

columbia and everybody wondered if we would sell out to investment banking that if it is a situation that we still have a reason to write a whole book that have jobs to make that is part of the same thing they pursue what they loved that they were often penalized for that for those who did what they had to do are penalized in a different way. they are alienated labor for that attempt was not to meet those have jobs they don't care about at all like i would say to david graber almost any

job you have to pretend to be busy at all times. you know that right? manual labor or whatever. that is the trick in medicine colleges should teach. [laughter] how to look busy. >> i will be here for signing you have been an incredible idea if you want to find out more about our organization we have information thank you. >> we have copies of barbara's book register please hold your chairs to form the signing line. [inaudible conversations]