Bootstrapping #Fail: Why the American “Solution” to Systemic Problems Keeps Falling Short

The Money with Katie Show

Money with Katie

Self-improvement, Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week’s episode holds two complex truths simultaneously: That sometimes, the answer is working harder, and other times, the answer is policy, interdependence, and community. Sure, individual responsibility is important—but when we try to solve complex, collective problems with individual exceptionalism, we create a recipe wherein quality of life for all but a select few worsens over time. Our individual wealth accumulation and experience of personal finance do not exist in a vacuum—they exist within the context of the economic policy decisions and cultural norms of our time. You can work on your metaphoric swimming and freestyle upstream for as long as you’ve got the energy to do so, but the strength of the current is outside of your control. Usually, we talk about your swimming. Today, we’re talking about the current. Plus, this episode features an interview with Rebecca Walker, activist and author of Women Talk Money (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Women-Talk-Money/Rebecca-Walker/9781501154324). Get ready! To learn more about our sponsor, Vin Social, check out http://vinsocialvip.com/. Episode transcripts can be found at https://www.podpage.com/money-with-katie-show/. — Mentioned in the Episode ChooseFI: https://www.choosefi.com/ Beyond the #Girlboss and Fixing the Motherhood Penalty: https://moneywithkatie.com/blog/the-girl-bossification-and-the-motherhood-penalty 40% of Americans have not traveled outside the US: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lealane/2019/05/02/percentage-of-americans-who-never-traveled-beyond-the-state-where-they-were-born-a-surprise/?sh=3a307eb82898 Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567511/trick-mirror-by-jia-tolentino/ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study: https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm Pew Research Center on paid family leave: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/16/u-s-lacks-mandated-paid-parental-leave/ Trey Lockerbie's tweet: https://twitter.com/TreyLockerbie/status/1572417849351868418?s=20&t=y8rcaIBB6ZKFUAxIkSxR0g US households with children ages 3-5 in 2021: https://www.statista.com/statistics/679812/number-of-households-with-children-by-age/ Joy Borkholder's Crosscut feature: https://crosscut.com/news/2022/01/why-child-care-us-lags-behind-much-world The Way We Never Were by Stephanie Coontz: https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/stephanie-coontz/the-way-we-never-were/9780465098835/ Rational Reminder: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582?i=1000569872619 WSJ feature on the wage gap: https://www.wsj.com/articles/gender-pay-gap-college-11659968901 The Whiteness of Wealth by Dorothy A. Brown: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/591671/the-whiteness-of-wealth-by-dorothy-a-brown/ Rebecca Walker's feature in Oprah Daily: https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a39431571/rebecca-walker-book-women-talk-money/ — Follow Along - Listen to Money with Katie here: https://www.podpage.com/money-with-katie-show/ - Read Money with Katie: https://moneywithkatie.com/ Follow Money with Katie! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneywithkatie/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/moneywithkatie - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moneywithkatie Subscribe to Morning Brew - Sign up for free today: https://bit.ly/morningbrewyt Follow The Brew! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningbrew/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorningBrew - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morningbrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What do state mandated and paid family leave universal child care and single-payer health
0:06.1	care systems have in common?
0:08.3	The U.S. doesn't guarantee any of them making us an outlier amongst all other rich countries.
0:15.7	So where does that leave Americans?
0:18.3	Well, most are seeking privatized individual solutions, trying to keep themselves afloat
0:23.5	and get ahead with their ratty bootstraps, in a world where there are a few glorious winners
0:28.8	who strike it very rich while everyone else makes do with the leftovers.
0:34.0	Bootstrap mentality has its limitations, and when we rely on individual success to navigate
0:39.6	collective issues, we drive ourselves and our country further into the depths of inequality
0:45.4	and debt.
0:46.4	There is a lot going on here that makes it unnecessarily difficult for us to reach our full potential
0:51.2	as humans, earning potential and otherwise, so let's get into it.
0:59.8	Welcome back, rich girls and boys to The Money with Katie Show.
1:04.9	I'm your host, Katie Yaddi Tassant, and today we are diving into the American solution
1:10.0	to pretty much everything, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
1:14.8	My guest today, Rebecca Walker, is the woman responsible for coining the term third wave
1:26.3	feminism.
1:27.3	Yeah.
1:28.3	She writes a lot about feminism, gender, race, cultural power structures, and most recently
1:33.2	in her book Women Talk Money.
1:35.7	I was thrilled that she agreed to sit down with me for this conversation.
1:40.3	So this topic seems like a natural one for The Money with Katie Show.
	...

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