Revisiting How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against Workers (with Elizabeth Anserson)
Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
Civic Ventures
4.7 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | The rising inequality and growing political instability that we see today are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory. |
| 0:10.6 | The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked. |
| 0:14.7 | But what's the alternative? |
| 0:16.3 | Middle-out economics is the answer. |
| 0:18.6 | Because the middle class is the source of growth, not its consequence. |
| 0:23.1 | That's right. |
| 0:28.7 | This is pitchfork economics with Nick Hanauer, a podcast about how to build the economy from the middle out. |
| 0:36.9 | Welcome to the show. |
| 0:38.3 | Hey, Pitchfork listeners. I'm Freddie, producer at Pitchfork Economics. |
| 0:48.3 | We've been told for decades that if you just work hard enough, the economy will meet you halfway. |
| 0:54.4 | But today, we're revisiting an episode called How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic Against |
| 0:59.2 | Workers, and it shows how that promise was flipped on its head. |
| 1:03.5 | Professor Elizabeth Anderson explains how neoliberalism rewired our moral language, turning |
| 1:08.1 | ideas like responsibility and self-reliance into tools for blaming |
| 1:11.7 | workers for a system that was never designed to work for them. If you've ever felt like you're |
| 1:16.4 | running faster but falling further behind, this episode explains why. You know, Nick, one of the |
| 1:25.1 | things that I missed during the pandemic is that, you know, since it came on, you've delegated our annual reviews. |
| 1:32.9 | So I don't really get your feedback. |
| 1:36.1 | And I know you love my work, the quality of my work, else you wouldn't be putting up with me. |
| 1:42.2 | But I'm curious what you think of my work ethic. |
| 1:46.6 | Yeah, it's medium. |
| 1:50.5 | Medium. |
... |
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