How America Ceased to Be the Land of Opportunity (with Yoni Appelbaum)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Nick and Goldy are joined by journalist and historian Yoni Appelbaum to discuss his forthcoming book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. They explore how decades of failed economic policies and zoning regulations have restricted mobility, stifled economic growth, and worsened inequality—revealing the historical roots of our current housing and economic inequality crises. Appelbaum argues that the decline in housing affordability isn't just a housing problem but a mobility problem, as many Americans are increasingly unable to afford to move to areas of the country where they can pursue better opportunities for themselves or their children. Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor of The Atlantic and a social and cultural historian of the United States. Before joining The Atlantic, he was a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University. Social Media: Bluesky @yappelbaum.bsky.social Twitter @YAppelbaum Further reading: Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity. Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: The Pitch

Transcript

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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.
0:11.0	The last five decades of trickle-down economics haven't worked. But what's the alternative?
0:16.0	Middle-out economics is the answer.
0:19.0	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.
0:44.3	America's housing crisis affects us all differently, Nick.
0:49.2	For example, in your case, you're, you know, you're one of those people who suffers from the plight of the
0:54.6	homeful. It must be, it must be really difficult, you know, having to travel from home to home to home.
1:01.9	Where are you today? I'm in London, very old London, very old England, yeah. Yeah, I'm actually
1:08.9	on the road, too. I'm visiting my daughter in Los Angeles.
1:11.6	Excellent.
1:12.6	I don't want to, I too have a, you know, I don't want to make my problems sound like
1:20.6	they're severe because I'm one of the winners in all this from this shortage.
1:26.6	I bought a house in Seattle in 1997.
1:31.6	I thought it was stupidly expensive back then.
1:35.2	It is way more stupidly expensive now.
1:39.7	So I'm one of the winners, accident of timing and location.
1:44.7	But a lot of other people aren't as lucky and, in fact, couldn't have done what I did,
1:50.8	which was just uproot and move to Seattle to where the opportunities are because it's just
1:57.8	way more expensive to live in Seattle.
	...

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