onnext, a discussion inequality in america.er that, republican presidential candidates speak at a forum hosted by the republican jewish coalition. then a house hearing on u.s. drug policy. now, former labor secretary robert reisch, former white house green jobs advisor van jones and others discuss inequality in america. posted by "the nation" this is an hour and 45 minutes. host: thank you, can you hear me? it is terrific to be in san francisco. so many supporters, friends, readers, i hope soon to be readers subscribers in this , gorgeous theater. this is the last stop on our trip. 2015 marked the 150th birthday of the nation. it is daunting. [applause] host: this is our last stop in introducing a new generation to the next generation. some 3 million people come to "the nation" now every week in different forms, so we are proud of that. tonight we have gathered some of the great thinkers, activists on issues of fairness, fighting inequality. for a panel, i think that is vital at this time, at any time. it is a transcendent issu

next, a discussion on inequality in america. after that, donald trump holds a campaign rally in virginia. now former labor secretary robert reich, former white house jobs advisor grant -- van jones, and others discuss inequality in america. posted by "the nation," this is one hour and 40 minutes. post: thank you, can you hear me? it is terrific to be in san francisco. soon-to-beders and readers, subscribers in this gorgeous theater. this is the last stop on our trip. 2015 march the 150th birthday of the nation -- 2015 marked the 150th birthday of the nation. it is daunting. [applause] t: this is our last stop in introducing a new generation to the next generation. people come to the nation now every week in different forms, so we are proud of that. tonight we have gathered some of on great thinkers, activists issues of fairness, fighting inequality. for a panel, i think that is vital at this time, at any time. it is a transcendent issue of our time. let me introduce our great moderator, and we shall begin. cordell is ard retired

reich: this is a big piece of inequality.ists and also, political contributions, and relatively er of a small minority to get experts, university experts. ladoris: think tanks. sec. reich: and think tank experts to substantiate whatever they want, and congressional hearings, and elsewhere. power wer, all of that has a compounding effect on the market is organized. let it tilts the market in the increasingly, of the wealthy, and the wealthy institutions of society. and as the market is tilted in that direction, you see that consequence is for the wealthy to have even more power, and large institutions, large corporations, and wall street to even get more power over the ding t, and that compoun gets worse and worse. it's a vicious cycle that -- unless we understand it, and attempt to reverse it vailing power, we are not going to accomplish much. i couldn't agree with you more, all of you, about the importance of grass roots organization. but grass roots organization is understanding or and recapturing the central society.ions o

or inequities but let's call it what it is, it's been a inequality and in equity. think about attitudes to poverty if you are of a particular political persuasion you may think they are of their own misfortune so if they are the political persuasion you may think that poverty in the richest societies a stain on that which society and so we should do something about it but either way it's i'm not rich but i'm not poor so if there is any supply to me, my answer is yes, you and i are right in the middle of all of this because what the evidence shows in the u.s., the uk and in a whole slew of other countries where we have data is a social gradient in health and by that i mean if we classify people by education or income or socioeconomic level of the neighborhood what we find is people at the top of the hierarchy had the best health and a little bit below them have good health and it runs all the way from top to bottom so the poor are at the end of the spectrum. the people we don't normally think of as poor or lower down and have worse health than they might otherwise i

or inequities. in the us you are more likely to say disparities. call it what it is. the unfair distribution of health. commonly we think about poor health. think about attitudes to poverty. if you are of a particular political persuasion you may think the poor are architects of their own misfortune. they are poor because of their own poor volition, poor choices, so they've got no one to blame but themselves. if your good differentvery different political persuasion you may think poverty in our society is a stain on average society, and so we should do something about it. either way, you think it is not me. i am not poor. i may not be rich, but i am not poor. my answer is, yes, you and i are in the middle of this because with the evidence shows in the us, uk, and in a whole slew of other countries is there is a social gradient, and by that, i mean, by education or income or socioeconomic level of neighborhood what we find is people at the top of the hierarchy of the best health, people a little bit

first of all, the talk about inequality has been around for years. in the 1930s supreme court justice louis brandeis noted we can have a democracy or we can have great wealth in the hands of a few, but we cannot have those. in 1056, the nation published an article by w. e. b. dubois in which he wrote corporate wealth profits as never before in history or turnover the national resources to private profit and have few friends left for education, health and housing. so if we talk about politics, there's a boatload of money and the lobbying industry. in 2013 if we talk about silicon valley, apple spent 3.3 million lobbying just in 2013. amazon 3.4, facebook six when far, microsoft 10.4 and google spent 15.8 million all to influence politicians in washington. so do we -- don't we have terrain and lobbying to achieve income inequality and if so, how do we do that? >> well, the answer is clearly we do and we have to get big money out of politics. we have to reverse the decisions united. we have to make sure that there is -- [applause] public financing about

san francisco most certainly symbolizes the inequality issue. the city has been wracked by battles over development, a homeless population that spills onto its sidewalks, rocketing housing costs, and increases in crime. with its gleaming new buildings and influx of silicon valley wealth, san francisco has the fastest growing income inequality gap in the nation. so what does this inequality mean for the political process? for the environment? living wages and immigrant rights? and in turn, for civil society and the future of our democracy? tonight you will have a conversation with four prominent experts about key problems afflicting america, through the lens of the unprecedented wealth in the united states today. first, a senior fellow at the blum center for developing economy. he served as secretary of labor in the clinton administration and was named by time magazine as one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the 20th century. his latest book is "saving capitalism for the many, not the few." please welcome robert reich. [applause] s

you have a public income inequality.u have a lot of income inequality than rich parents have rich parents and portraits of poor children and you have less quality than you've got much more mixing and much more social mobility. so, what's happening to the parents is impacting the next generation and there may also be some genetic mechanisms that get passed but i don't go into that in the book. it's a very interesting area of research. but certainly certainly this so-called debate the social and psychological impacts that get passed down from one generation to the next so the politicians were in favor of the quality of opportunity that we don't have it. when we think about dealing with politicians and governments on its inherently multisectoral, not just the health industry. it is education and economic growth and all sorts of things and in the environment. i wanted to just read a quick excerpt and ask you something more about that. you say i would argue that the discussions on preserving the planet must take equity within

you look at inequality where you question the outsourcing of jobs.nd people point to the decline of unions, which ends the bargaining power for workers. >> i think americans, if you ask them about what is the ideal situation might say, oh, i don't care what the portions are. i just care if you can work your way out of one group into another. or if you make bad choices that you can fall from one group down into the one that's lower. what do we know about mobility? >> we know mobility in the united states is less than it was. to advance up the ladder in comparison to the work in the oec, for example, inequality there is less than in the united states and they are catching up to the united states. >> you also note -- we also know overall there is greater division more people behind when you have economic pollarization and this may link up to other forms of division in our society. >> following up on that inequality, it's as if the group moving smartly in that upper income category to take off almost leave a valley in between themselves and the middle in

when you look around, there are a lot of people talking about inequality, politicians talk about inequality but white dominated leftist movement and very little acknowledgment even within their own space not just with larger analysis. a lot of people are talking about that but they're not making a connection to white supremacy. i argue in the book and document, as many others have done the way the class system in the united states cannot be understood absent in understanding of white supremacy. it does not exist without iter ma nippulation of white workers and white workers racism and adherence to supremacy, we don't have a pot to pis in, it's okay, at least you're not black. purpose of the book is to explore connections and to explore how inequality gets rationalized and, you know, as you heard, it's happening within black space, internal to black space, so it's also happening to white space and it happens to all of us in the country because we have been conditioned, this mechanism for justifying inequality, in the old days, you know old european systems, if you were a peasant you knew you

we in today show looking at extreme carbon inequality. report by oxfam has found the richest 10% of the world's population produce half of the earth's climate-harming fossil fuel emissions. the poorest half, about 3.5 billion people, are responsible for only around 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. oxfam's report is titled, "extreme carbon inequality: why the paris climate deal must put the poorest, lowest emitting and most vulnerable people first." to talk more, we're joined by the report's author tim gore. he is the head of policy for oxfam international on food, land rights and climate change. , welcome back to democracy now! these figures are stunning. the world's richest 10% produce half of carbon emissions while the poorest, 3.5 billion, account for just 1/10. >> it is absolutely obscene. what we're saying is we absolutely have to tackle climate change and inequality together. we will either solve both of these problems or another. another staff, the richest 1% probably imminent something like 175 times more than the poorest 10

if you look at inequality, more broadly, people will point to globalization, the outsourcing of jobs, example, back office jobs done in indians rather than -- in india rather than the u.s. and people point to unions which changes the bargaining power of workers. >> i think americans, if you ask them about what their ideal situation might be might say i are. i just care if you can work your way out of one group into another or if you do badly and make bad choices that you can fall from one group down into the one that's lower. what do we know about mobility? >> we know that mobility in the united states is less than, say, in europe. the opportunities to advance up the ladder are diminished in comparison to the european counterparts. income inequality there is lesser than in the united states and in the last decade or so, in fact, they are catching up to the united states but we also know, overall, that there is greater division, with more people at the bottom, more people at the higher rungs of the income ladder, you have economic division, economic polarization, and this may link up t

so power inequality, you need to begin with public financing. i think in cities and states in this country that can chip away at citizens united. van: our opponents have one strategy. big money in, little people out. that is the approach. we have it split where you have one part of our movement that talks about big money and the other part talks about voting rights. we do not talk about -- if anybody what to go see the movie selma, that legislation is based on how it was destroyed by the supreme court. so you have us marching for our basic right to vote and others talking about big money, we have got to pull that together. we should have one agenda, big money out and little people in. [applause] sec. reich: the supreme court, remember we are talking about five of nine justices who have been response before the shameful shelby decision you just referred to, for citizens united and let's not forget, not many years ago -- where the supreme court found money is equal to free speech. to conceive that corporations are people, talk about the triumph of

the root cause is inequality as well as climate change.my: i want to get a inequality, but the issue of conflict in syria? >> from 2006 to 2011, 5 years of the worst drought ever in syrian history. between 1.5 to 29 people moved from rural to urban areas. 80% of livestock died. of course, in the situations, just as we know in the air spring -- arab spring with a harvest collapse, food prices tripled, those created the theal tensions which led to arab spring. a similar situation existed in syria and that is the main connection between thetwo. amy: inequality. >> we live in a broken economic system. we have 85 families who own 50% of global wealth, 80% of the world population, the majority of the world population only own 5% of the world's wealth. many of our citizens, our fellow citizens, 2.5 billion who don't have access to toilet, just under one billion who don't have access to electricity. the reality is, we have enough money, what we don't have is a political will to spin it in the right direction, the right places. inequality, which al

heuvel: america's policing of the world has detracted from the real security needs, tackling inequality, redefining security at home. and one thing the president could do in the first two hours is understanding the transition and close the 800 bases ringing this world. they are not going to modernize nuclear weapons. they are not going to begin to take them down to a level. just understand what endless war has done to damage the principles that could be deployed to end inequality in this country. [applause] ms. poo: before we close out, i just want to take a moment to recognize katrina, van. thank you so much. ms. heuvel: thank you, ai-jen. judge cordell: thank you to professor reich. [applause] judge cordell: thanks to ai-jen poo, director of the national domestic workers alliance. [applause] judge cordell: thank you to van jones, special white house advisor to green jobs. [applause] judge cordell: and thank you to katrina vanden heuvel. [applause] judge cordell: we also thank everyone in attendance tonight. this has been co-presented by the nation magazine. the conscience of our count

. >> host: professor ellenberg, we talked to a political issue is income inequality. >> guest: right. >> host: how do you look at that as a mathematician? >> guest: i mean, i think a really interesting question is even how do you measure income inequality? 40 how do you look at two different societies and say is this one more unequal than one or different periods of time how has inequality change. i mean, here at least -- at least to the best of my knowledge -- if you compare the united states of today with the united states that i grew up, let's say in the 1980s, i don't think there's any dispute that our society is more economically unequal now. i think, basically, you could choose any measure you want, and that story is pretty clear. >> host: somebody sits down at the blackjacking table. -- blackjack table. should they play for two hours or ten hours mathematically? >> guest: boy, i have to say i think i have been to a blackjack table once in my life. i lost $20, and i think it took me about four seconds, so at that rate -- [laughter] >> host: i'm just asking questions. you talk ab

income inequality. this is of course a domestic issue at a time when a lot of voters certainly across the country are much more concerned about national security. you may remember the last debate right after the paris attacks. the focus shifted a bit to national security. sanders didn't spend a whole lot of time talking about how he would defeat isis. he said, look, isis is a problem. but then so is income inequality. sort of shifting back to his main issue. it's possible that for him to gain more ground, gain more momentum and appeal to the world he's already not appealing to, he may have to show command of these issues. certainly renovating with his very avid supporters. which is income inequality, making sure the middle class has a chance that sort of thing. maybe something he can do to pick up the momentum, because he did have some momentum, but he's now stall behind hillary clinton certainly nationally. >> yes, interestingly, though, the monmouth poll shows vote s are more concerned with jobs and t

the inequality in educational outcomes is in many ways to inequality to income and wealth distribution>> host: what do you mean reference to tax policy? >> guest: this is congress' decision. clearly one tool that you have as a legislature to address inequality is tax rates, income wealth, inheritance. i'm not advocating a tax rate. that's not my role. it's a tool that you can consider, but it is one tool that congress has to look at. >> host: speaks with a louder voice than almost any other distinguished economist. i know you're not going to let me pin you down on what the tax rates should be, i would like to hear your assessment of what we are doing right and wrong, everything from earned income tax credit to a state tax to corporate tax to the personal income tax. >> guest: you mentioned two areas,me earned income tax credt and other credits that reward work and reward education, that those are constructive and they avoid some of the tradeoffs that you worry about that you create attacks on benefits, taking away attacks, for example. there's a lot of bipartisan agreement that closing

>> it's who wins what's an election about inequality. is it the trump sort of rhetoric which is just playing on the division and getting people to blame mexicans and others maybe for what's happening. or can the likely democratic nominee, hillary clinton, come with solutions to in'quality. i think that is the issue of the coming year is the issue of the election and it's so visceral. >> i don't think it's about inequality i think it's about change. what we really are seeing is a group of disaffected americans who are responding to these outsider candidates in way that they have not historically, real going to show up and vote. but it's coming at time when there is an opportunity i think for dramatic change. we saw the change in leadership in the republican party that came into congress, we'll see additional generational change in both parties over the course of the coming several years. and i think the real questions whether there is one party that is able to translate this anger, this demand for dramatic change into something healthy or

economy,alk about the let's talk about inequality. let's put it on the table.he people whether they think it is moral that the 1% owned almost as much wealth as the bottom 90% . by the way, when we talk about you caps on is that very well. welcome to the revolution. [applause] ♪ bernie is honest and he works for the people. berti speaks about issues that are affecting a majority of the american people right now. >> the more i listened to i am not was saying going to vote gender, i am going to vote character. john: any piece that allows us to play neil young, you have got to love that. the year that we are almost finished with and how far we have come. ♪ movingolitics is a target. here to help us understand just how much went down in 2015, our own will leitch. nicolle: where was donald trump a year ago and what was he up to. ? will: trunk referred to football as a boring sport with too many flags. there actually is an alternate history. there was a fear that the buffalo bills were going to leave. he said that he if he had gotten the buffalo bills, he would not r

there's a complex set of issues involving structural inequality in baltimore.the key issues is the issue of police brutality and misconduct, to which we're paying close attention. but we're also trying to keep our eye on multiple things at the same time. we knew going in that this would be a long and engaged process once the state's attorney announced charges against six officers. and i think people should give the citizens of baltimore credit for understanding that this is going to be complex and that we have to be patient but that we expect there to be justice and not just justice in terms of the verdicts against those police officers but justice in terms of multiple levels of structural inequality in baltimore including around transportation, housing, education and a whole series of other issues. >> and it's worth noting that we're finding out today as of today there have been 336 homicides in the city of baltimore. that is the second highest total on record in the history of city. >> this has been a really tough year for baltimore on multiple levels. the is

when you have massive income and wealth inequality, yes, the wealthy and large corporations are going to have to pay their fair share of taxes. we have a situation now where major corporation after major corporation, general electric, verizon, boeing in a given year, you know what they pay in federal income taxes? zero. not a penny. so that has clearly got to change. when you ask me about how you deal with wealth and income inequality, you know, we need to create millions of decent paying jobs and raise the minimum wage to a living wage. those are some of the ways i think we address that issue. >> right. and so if you were to run, this would be a central tenet, maybe the central tenet of your campaign? >> the central tenet of the campaign would be to say that never before in the modern history of our country have so few people had so much wealth and so much power. and if we, as a nation, are not prepared to say enough is enough, you can have it all. i mean, what we see is an epidemic of greed. you would think, if you were the koch brothers and you had $85 billion, it might be enough -

we had inequality and even worse than inequality today. we had urban and rural squalor. even worse squalor than we have today and if we were meeting in the 1900s instead of in 2015 many of you would be saying to yourself something like you are probably saying to yourself, can it get any worse? will be going to do about it like the people i meet in airports, strange people i don't know come up to me desperately and some very cynical but then what happened in 1901, there was suddenly a progressive era. the lone voices like robert lafollett. suddenly they were partitioning all over america. teddy roosevelt became president accidentally and teddy roosevelt not allowed exactly, he permitted a progressive era that fundamentally changed the organization of the economy. saved capitalism by his own excesses. and then of course after the great crash of 1929 we had no choice but to save capitalism once again from its own excesses and that again had to do with the reorganization and reorganizing the power structure behind the economy. because arguably, arguably by the late 1920s, ar

my first question is about income inequality. we've done studies on this. i know you have written extensively on trends. what do you see as the impact and when you think could be done to reverse the trend? -- and what the you think could be done to reverse the trend? a veryellen: there is disturbing trend toward rising income inequality in this country. economists have looked carefully at many different factors brendan: that might be responsible for it. these are factors that are not recent. we have been in operation since the early or mid 80's. technological change has been biased in the direction of increasing the demand for skilled labor in diminishing -- and -- diminishing the demand for less skilled labor, particularly people who engage in rather routine jobs that can be computerized. technical change and globalization also appears to have played a role in reducing the number of jobs, especially in middle income jobs, that can omitted.rced or there are other factors that people have studied. let me make clear that these trends are not ones the federal

inequality definitely plays a role here. and of course we need to see sufficient where withal for households to spend in a way that generates forecast of continuing growth. >> thank you. >> senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thank you. madam chair, we're grateful for your testimony today. your presence and your public service. i will have just one question i will submit a second from the record because of the limitations on time we have today and we have in the senate as well. that i was irst heartened in your testimony that we all have heard, i guess here, there, but we don't emphasize enough. the statement you made the economy has created about 13 million jobs since the low point for employment in early 2010. that's good news. good news on the unemployment rate itself which as you note peaked at 10% in october 2009, declined 5% october this year. so literally cut in half. that's good news. we should emphasize that as we highlight or itemize some of the challenges with labor force participation rate or folks not -- folks reall

which state has the least income inequality, utah.oc liberals protects they care of income of inequality, they pretend they care about the working class and raising the minimum wage. stop dumping low-wage workers on the country then it will rise naturally through the laws of supply and demand as it has in australia and new zealand. [laughter] >> there's a lot there, obviously. >> i never read david brooks so i would be curious. >> that's exactly right. actually people at new york times who hired david books. suggested that donald trump was using textbook in order to drive out the vote and he suggested that any antiimmigrant rhetoric in talking about different cultures that are not as good as western civilization -- >> well, i supposed if you're not talking about people that have no right a to live here. i'm not afraid of them. they are wrecking the country for people already here. the racism question which i talk a lot in my book, no, no, the reason americans are sensitive to the race issue is because of the legacy of slavery and jim crowe. that's why we have civil rights laws, that's wh

inequality is a factor in that mix. but it is hard to quantify -- ity how much it count accounts for. scarlet: ok, you are going to stay with us. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ --hat'd you miss?" let's get to first word news. president obama held a new first conference -- a news conference today, saying that -- he also talked about the crisis in syria. >> it is entirely right and proper for the united eight to speak out on the behalf of its values. when you have an authoritarian killing hundreds of thousands of his own people the notion that we would just stick and by -- stand by and say nothing is contrary to who we are. and that is not serve our interests. agenda, he has -- heads to california to meet with families of the san bernardino shooting. this will be the president's last stop before he travels to hawaii with his family. he also delivered at an early earlymas gift, granting releases to offenders and pardoning to others. arely all of those nonviolent drug offenders. at the early releases -- the early releases on th

income inequality. in nevada people are very aware of what wall street has done to this country. i believe we've got to take on wall street and break up the major financial institutions. sanders held a rally tonight... at "canyon springs high school". we've seen them..... catch on fire several times now... but... is there a new concern.... surrounding the hoverboard? in tonight's consumer alert... why you could be calling.... the fire department... and... making a trip.... to the emergency room. plus... dramatic video catches a car engulfed.... in flames.. find out... who comes to the driver's rescue.... just seconds.... before the car explodes. bryan... northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. a mountain snow shower possible. some incredible video.... out of pennsylvania.... burning car.... to pull the driver.... to safety.. the firefighter says... when he got there..... he knew.... he had only seconds.... until the car exploded. so... he raced into the car.... without any of his gear... and grabbed.... the unconscious man.. officials say... the driver had lost control and he was taken to th

what we're finding there is increasing income disparity and income inequality.e also find that as the federal reserve destroys the value of the currency, what you're finding is that if you're poor, if you make $20,000 a year and you have three or four kids and you're trying to get by, as your prices rice or as the value of the dollar shrinks, these are the people hurt the worst. so we really need to reexamine whether we want a federal reserve that involves so much in determining interest rates. we also need to look at root causes as to what caused the housing boom and the housing collapse but the bottom line is if you want less income inequality, move to city with republican mayor or a state with a republican governor. [applause] moderator: thank you. we're only just getting started. coming up your taxes. coming up your taxes. stick around. you can't breathed. through your nose. suddenly, you're a mouthbreather. a mouthbreather! how can anyone sleep like that? well, just put on a breathe right strip and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than cold

so, he may have a points, that kind of inequality festers terrorism. but i would make point because we know that isis is funded by petro dollars, all oil money that makes isis possible. we should do two things bombing the oil fields, and we should be drills for every barrel of oil we can in united states, we're not sending money to people who are trying to kill us. this is an obvious thing. we have a shale oil and gas revolution going on here, we have more oil, gas and cold than any other country in the world,. deirdre: we do get most of our oil from canada and mexico. >> true. deirdre: we're less dependent on middle east. >> true. deirdre: i want to ask about this goldman sachs back research saying that price of oil could drop to $20 a barrel that is a big move, opec meeting friday. what happens to what the capital market call the fragile 5? the economic that rbc capital said will suffer more in oil falls more. we have a world map now, three of them in particular terrorist hot spots. >> so, that hurts the terrorists a lot, nothing that hurts them more

andy: income inequality came tangentially when sanders tried to bring it up. the economic issues that are talked about much. moving forward but this is the last and only democratic primary in new hampshire. there will be one more in south hampshire primary. the dnc sets the schedule, what thank you for joining us. after the debate was the news 9 set. people are working harder than ever, but the everyday cost of perscriptions, child care, or even just buying groceries can be a stretch for too many families. hillary's plan: raise the minimum wage, get equal pay for women, cut taxes for the middle class, and new incentives for business to share profits with employees instead of just rewarding ceos. those at the top are doing just it's your family that needs a raise. i'm hillary clinton, and i approve this message. josh: welcome back to "close up ." senator bernie sanders has been talking a lot about income inequality in the american economy. interview with us, the dnc was an issue and the controversy surrounding it. here' s our discussion. thanks for joining us.

this political damage of health creates health inequities. such disempowerment may take different forms in the low, middle and high income

big surprise political stories, you've suggested recently that your message about the economic inequality can appeal to the strum voters, explain how that happened? supporters are working class people. and they are angry. they're angry because they are working longer hours for lower wages, they're angry because their jobs have left this country and gone to china or other low wagee cououries. they're angry because they can't afford to send their kids to dignity. i think what trump has done successfully i would say is take that anger, take that anxiety about terrorism and say to a lot of people in this country, look, the reason for our problem is cause of mexicans. and he says, they're all criminals andapists we have to hate them. he says muslims are all terrorist, keep them out of this country. that's what we have to deal with to make america great. meanwhile intetestingly enough, john, this is guy does not want to wage the minimum wayne but he said that he thinks wages in america are too high. but he does want to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the top what his worki