Subtitles section Play video
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- [Sam] This is an event
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of the Center for Labor Employment Law.
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- Excuse me.
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- [Sam] And our moderator this morning is Ron Checkman.
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Who's a long standing friend.
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He's a most distinguished graduate of this school.
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And, has for many, many years,
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carved out a very interesting career,
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representing labor unions talent,
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public and private sector.
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He most recently, negotiated,
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it must be a first time only,
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profit participation agreement
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for the original cast members of Hamilton.
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Which is quite interesting.
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And Ron and I, in the old days,
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I don't know if you remember this,
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we were on the Free Speech Committee of the ACLU.
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- [Ron] I do remember well.
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- [Sam] We were trying to come up with
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a constitutional theory
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for union political and speech rights,
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a long, long time ago.
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So we're very proud of Ron on many different scores,
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least of which is that he's a member of our
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Board of the Center for Labor Employment Law
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and I'm gonna turn it over to Ron.
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- [Ron] Thanks, Sam.
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And it's my pleasure as we go along with introductions
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to introduce the star of this morning's production,
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who wants proper participation
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as well. (laughing)
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- I have rights in the video, so.
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Everybody understands. (laughing)
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- [Man] Multiplying a zero,
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doesn't (mumbles). (laughing)
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- [Ron] So it's my pleasure to introduce you to Andy Stern,
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who is the President Emeritus, of the 2.2 million member
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Service Employees International Unit, SEIU.
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Representing janitors, childcare, home care,
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healthcare workers, which grew by more than
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1.2 million while he was President.
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I had the pleasure of meeting him then,
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when along with the janitors, childcare, home care workers,
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he organized the and amalgamated
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the largest union of attending physicians, into the SEIU.
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He has been called the,
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and I quote a courageous visionary leader,
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who chartered a bold new course,
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for American unionists.
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He has been featured on 60 Minutes, CNN,
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on the covers of New York Times magazine,
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Fortune and Business Week.
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He's on the boards of the Open Society Foundation,
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the Hillman Foundation and the Broad Center.
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He was a presidential appointee,
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on the Simpson-Bowles Commission,
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the most frequent visitor
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to the White House in 2009 and '10.
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You'll have to tell us what the hell you were doing there.
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And a key organizer for Obamacare.
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Is now the Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow
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of the university.
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His first book, "A Country That Works",
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was published in 2005
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and his new book, we're talking about today,
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"Raising the Floor: How a Universal, Basic Income
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"Can Renew our Economy and Restore the American Dream."
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It calls for America to take it to (mumbles)
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and take bold action in the face of massive potential,
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the massive potential job disruption.
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When he was interviewed this spring,
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he talked about the effects of technology
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and the structural changes to our economy
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and how they have affected employment opportunities,
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for the American worker.
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He said in that interview,
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talking about his book,
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I quote him now and this will ring I'm sure,
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poignantly to all, "As I like to say,
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"this is the United States of Anxiety now,
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"and it's only going to get worse."
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So clearly, Andy was prescient, talking about this in June.
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We wish maybe some of his advice
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to a female politician, who I think just has retired.
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It would've been more than helpful.
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It's advice about concerns
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that were clearly central
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to the electorate and the presidential election
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and that has clearly established
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the United States of Anxiety, for yet many other reasons.
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Our anxiety won't be relieved until we talk about the issues
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and the proposals that Andy has thought so much about.
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So, we have the pleasure this morning,
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and the opportunity to hear about some of his thinking
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and to see if he can help us,
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relieve some of our anxiety.
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- Thank you very much.
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It does seem irresponsible to
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speak anywhere at the moment,
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and not talk about the election.
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Unfortunately, Ron gave my cross over remarks.
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(laughing) that this is actually
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in some ways, more about the election
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than we appreciate now and probably even more important,
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as we think about the world going forward,
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not just in and around the United States,
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but around the world,
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because we can all see with Brexit
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and many other tensions that are existing around the world,
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that some combination of you know,
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race, immigration and economics are fueling
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a lot of uneasiness and reactions all around the world.
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So you may wonder why you got up early in the morning
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to listen to someone who is Exhibit A,
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of the one job in a lifetime,
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20th century economy.
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Who comes from an institution the American Labor Movement.
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Not very well known for thinking about the future
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and is gonna talk to you about an idea
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called a universal basic income,
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which I didn't know what it was, three years ago.
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So thank you for coming,
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because you may find that this was an early morning that
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may not have solved all your needs,
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but I wanna explain how I got here in front of you
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to talk about this.
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As was said, I spent my entire life
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in the most wonderful institution,
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that I can possibly imagine.
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I was supposed to go to law school.
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My father is a lawyer, my brother and sisters are lawyers.
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I decided at some point, along the whirl,
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there was a better way for me,
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in terms of someone who has ADHD
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and a little bit of a juvenile delinquent,
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to live his life and that was
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trying to change other people's lives.
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I was very fortunate.
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I knew nothing about unions,
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when I went, was growing up
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across the river in New Jersey.
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I got my first job as a welfare worker,
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of all things, which will be very relevant
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as we talk about the book.
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Went to my first union meeting,
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'cause they were serving pizza.
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(laughing) That was a very principled
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and profound reason.
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Then spent the rest of my life,
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38 years, doing the most wonderful thing
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with janitors, and security officers,
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and nursing home home care, childcare workers,
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which is working together to make people who are
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basically powerless, you know, through our union,
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become powerful.
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I said and I still believe that,
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the union movement was the best anti-poverty program,
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the best welfare program, the best job creation program,
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the best benefit program, retirement program,
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America ever created for the 20th century.
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It didn't cost the government a dime.
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In the absence of unions,
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the world has changed and for me,
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you know, I was very lucky to eventually become
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for 14 years, President of what became
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the largest union in the United States,
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the fastest growing union in the world.
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We ended up having offices and running campaigns
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in 12 different countries.
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I spent a lot of my life,
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trying to hold private equity in Wal-mart
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and banks and large multi-national employers,
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accountable to the workers that they represent.
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I had a lot of wonderful experiences with all the people
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I worked with and becoming a large union,
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the largest political action committee in the country.
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Spending five years trying to win Obamacare,
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to not our members, who already health insurance,
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but so that every American had an opportunity
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to have the kind of security they wanted to do.
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I was the most frequent visitor to the White House.
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The dirty little secret is,
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every time you go on the White House tour, it counts,
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so take the tour! (laughing)
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A lot of you too can be a very important person,
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just never tell that story, out loud.
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I was on the Simpson-Bowles Commission.
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I did something that people never do in Washington,
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is I quit.
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I retired.
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I didn't retire, 'cause I didn't know,
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you know, that it wasn't a good job,
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or I was gonna lose my election.
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I retired because I joined the labor movement,
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'cause I wanted to change people's lives
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and I had lost an ability to understand
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in the economy, and this was 2010,
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where inequality was rising,
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unions were shrinking,
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jobs were getting worse.
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Like how to lead an organization of 2.2 million people,
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when you didn't know where to take it?
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I felt that was not the right job for me to be in
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and there were lots of younger and more diverse
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group of people who were ready to lead
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and I left it, I began this journey
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and I'm gonna just tell you what I found,
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'cause I only learned three things.
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Took a lot of time, I'm a slow learner,
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but I did learn three things.
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First thing I learned, is this.
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This is the 20th century American economy,
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I'll just explain it to you,
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'cause you probably can't see it,
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but in the 20th century,
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everybody just talked about economic growth.
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All you had to say if you were a politician is,
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"The economy is growing."
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What it really meant, was the economy was growing,
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productivity growing, jobs were growing
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and wages were growing.
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It worked pretty well in the 20th century.
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The market and unions and the government,
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sort of combined for large numbers of people
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to create what we bragged about,
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which was the largest middle class in the world.
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You know, there were lots of problems with capitalism.
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There were lots of problems, but.
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People were trying to round off the rough edges
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and as you can see, these four lines grew together.
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That's the 20th century economy.
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For the main part.
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Now the end of the 20th century,
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something began to happen and that is,
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this green line, which we now know,
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looking backwards, which is income.
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We had growth in productivity.
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We had growth in GDP.
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We had growth in jobs
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and we didn't have growth in income.
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For 20 and now almost 30 years,
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American workers didn't get a raise,
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at least the median, the most of them.
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Very much is fueling the Trump anxiety,
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which we'll talk about.
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That we now know.
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You know, the union movement then other progressives
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and economists would say,
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"You know, wages aren't growing.
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"Let me say, yeah they're not growing now,
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"because that's because of globalization,
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"but as