Hey, pitchfork listeners, Goldie here. Today we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations,

our interview with economist Mark Paul about his book, The Ends of Freedom. It's a bold

reimagining of what freedom is and what it should actually mean in America. We've been taught

to think of freedom as freedom from, from government, from taxes, from

interference. But what about the freedom to live a dignified life? The freedom to have a job,

a home, health care, or even clean air and water. One of the more regrettable turns in the

mostly noble history of negative freedom is its co-opting and radicalization by a group of influential economists during the second half of the 20th century.

For the past 60 years, policymakers on both sides of the aisle have been held in thrall by this set of beliefs, and the results are patent.

Egregious levels of inequality and child poverty, persistently high unemployment,

and sickness and mortality rates higher than those of democratic countries of comparable

wealth. In the ends of freedom, Mark argues that economic rights, like the right to housing,

to education, or to health care, aren't radical, they're essential.

The economic rights described in this book, and by others earlier in American history,

have profound promise to smooth out the sharp, often deadly edges of the current economic system. If you've ever wondered why our economy works so well for the wealthy and so poorly for everyone else,

this episode is worth a listen.

Hope you enjoy.

The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result

of decades of bad economic theory.

The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked. But what's

the alternative? Middle-out economics is the answer. Because the middle class is the source of growth,

not its consequence. That's right.

This is Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out.

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