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Transcription: [00:11:40]
{Unknown Speaker}
Leave Act. So the notion of job security is just shrinking. [[background noise]]
[00:11:44]
Employment in small businesses is going
[00:11:46]
to evaporate than employment in large businesses because,
[00:11:49]
guess what, the small businesses get to discriminate.
[00:11:52]
{Unknown Speaker}
[[background noise]] Um, small businesses that employ fewer
[00:11:55]
than fifteen employees do not have to follow -
[00:11:57]
say, safe health laws, they don't have to follow EEO laws [[background noise]].
[00:12:01]
They can make you work overtime, undertime, around time, and you say no, you fired.
[00:12:05]
And in this particular current market, you find lots of that going on.
[00:12:10]
Unionization was the only protection that lots of African-American people had.
[00:12:14]
African American men in unions earn about 50 percent more than
[00:12:17]
African-American men who are not in unions.
[00:12:19]
For women, the numbers are about 30 percent.
[00:12:22]
{Unknown Speaker}
So as unionization drops, you see essentially a lot of people are not being protected.
[00:12:26]
And of course, the structural shift from manufacturing to
[00:12:29]
service employment has created low-wage jobs.
[00:12:32]
{Unknown Speaker}
In the 80s, what happened is simply this:
[00:12:35]
um, the highest fifth of all families saw their incomes rise by 30 percent,
[00:12:39]
and everybody else saw their incomes drop.
[00:12:41]
The highest fifth saw their incomes rise, and everyone else saw their incomes drop.
[00:12:47]
{Unknown Speaker}
In addition, this whole notion of deregulation has meant that
[00:12:50]
we have no safety and health in this country.
[00:12:52]
Think of the Imperial Foods Fire in Hamlet, North Carolina,
[00:12:57]
where twenty-five women perished, leaving forty-two children without mothers.
[00:13:02]
A disproportionate number of those people were African American.
[00:13:06]
None of them made more than five dollars an hour.
[00:13:10]
This is George Bush's American Dream, and this is how you get to the point
[00:13:14]
where 97 million people say, "I cannot change anything about this politics,
[00:13:18]
- politics. I'm goin' stay home."
[00:13:20]
Is there any, I mean, let's check my list as I read these numbers and write them down.
[00:13:26]
I tell you, I don't lie - I keep a little money in my mattress because—
[00:13:31]
I mean, in addition to the whole notion of lack of security is that
[00:13:34]
all our financial institutions have also been questioned.
[00:13:37]
Not only S&Ls and banking, but now insurance. Y'know, why's your insurance company,
[00:13:41]
and everything else— and this is not about paranoia. What it is about is what is happening here.
[00:13:46]
[[background noise]]
Is there any hope on the horizon?
[00:13:49]
It's not as hard as you think.
[00:13:51]
You measurably improve your chances in life if you go to college.
[00:13:53]
You don't guarantee anything, but you measurably improve that.
[00:13:56]
This statistic, happening at the time when African-Americans are going to college less—
Transcription Notes:
time stamps should be every 3-5 secs, if possible, per instructions.
I think this audio is mis-labeled. The first 5 min or so is an interview, which is abruptly cut-off with this speaker giving a talk on economics.