What’s the trick in trickle-down? (with Yuval Noah Harari and Molly Crockett)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2019

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is the “trick” in “trickle down” economics? It’s how wealthy elites and their neoliberal lackeys convince you that what’s good for them (tax cuts, deregulation, etc.) is good for you… and that policies like the minimum wage, overtime, and paid sick leave will ruin the economy. Economics is a story we tell ourselves to help explain who gets what, and why. In this episode, which we’re re-issuing for the holidays because it’s just so dang good, we explore how to tell a better story. Yuval Noah Harari is the author of international bestsellers: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. He is a professor in the Department of History at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Twitter: @yuvalharari Facebook: @Prof.Yuval.Noah.Harari Instagram: @yuval_noah_harari Molly Crockett is the director of the Crockett Lab and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She is also a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics. Twitter: @mollycrockett Further reading: A threat, not a theory: https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/41/a-threat-not-a-theory/ To my fellow plutocrats: you can cure Trumpism: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/18/to-my-fellow-plutocrats-you-can-cure-trumpism-215347 Our website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Our twitter: @PitchforkEcon Our instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	So Nick, it's the holidays. It is. And as a gift to our listeners, we've decided to re-release one of our favorite episodes.
0:08.8	That's right. And during the holidays, we are reminded of our culture and our stories and the you know the
0:19.3	things that hold our society together whether you're a Christian and believe in Christmas or Jew, take
0:26.4	Hanukkam more seriously or whatever it is, or the variety of other stories that knit together
0:32.0	our culture, our traditions, and our society.
0:35.0	And so we thought it would be really cool to re-release one of our favorite podcasts
0:40.0	that was devoted to the power of these narratives and stories.
0:45.0	The episode featuring the remarkable historian Yval Harare
0:50.0	and our friend the Yale neuroscientist Molly Crockett.
0:56.6	People love the episode and it's festive, I guess.
1:00.6	Festive, right.
1:02.0	And that's our gift to everybody and we wish you all happy holidays.
1:07.0	Absolutely.
1:08.0	We're so good at doing things that are very selfish while at the same time convincing ourselves
1:16.6	that we're doing the most moral possible thing.
1:19.4	We'll trickle down a few crumbs from the master's table to get some of them through one or two
1:25.6	Christmas shopping seasons.
1:27.6	And let's tell them that they can do their taxes on a postcard.
1:31.6	Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small business.
1:37.3	What people have to recognize is that these stories that are told often are not told because they're true, they're told because they're the most effective way
1:47.5	ever devised for elites to continue to gain advantage and to keep other folks down.
1:53.0	From the offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle,
	...

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