The Failed Southern Economic Development Model (with Chandra Childers)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

This week, Goldy and Paul talk to Chandra Childers, a senior policy and economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute and author of their recent report on the Southern economic development model. Although the Southern economic development model is touted as a business-friendly strategy, it has devastating consequences for workers and families in Southern states. Childers explains how this economic model is rooted in racism and economic exploitation and has led to lower wages, weaker safety nets, and fewer opportunities for workers. They also discuss how some Southern states are bucking this trend and attempting to adopt more progressive policies, as well as the potential impact of renewed unionization efforts in the region. Chandra Childers is a senior policy and economic analyst with the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) at the Economic Policy Institute. Her work is primarily focused on supporting EARN’s state and local policy research and advocacy network in the Southern United States. Before joining the EARN team at EPI, Childers was a Study Director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Twitter: @ChandraChilders Further reading: Breaking down the South’s economic underperformance The evolution of the Southern economic development strategy Rooted in racism and economic exploitation Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

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.
0:10.0	It's time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out, not the top down.
0:15.0	Middle out economics is the answer.
0:18.0	Because Wall Street didn't build this country.
0:20.0	Great middle class built this country.
0:22.0	The more the middle class thrives, the better the economy from the middle out.
0:42.0	Welcome to the show. build the economy from the middle out.
0:42.6	Welcome to the show. Paul. So, Paul, thank you for joining us on this podcast to actually talk about one of the things that's kind of near and dear to our hearts in a way or maybe it's the inverse of it
1:17.4	We're very much into in case longtime listeners haven't realized We like a high wage model. We think that economies
1:26.1	work better when wages are high across the board, low, middle, even you know
1:31.6	even rich guys like Nick. It's okay if he's making some money as
1:34.8	long as we're taxing the hell out of him and here in you know our office has
1:40.1	always worked from the very beginning in fact Nick, Nick and I met over the $15 minimum wage,
1:45.8	the fight for the $15 minimum wage in Seattle, in Washington throughout the country.
1:52.1	And we know we're not perfect here in Washington but we feel like
1:57.6	this high-wage model works very well for us. It certainly works to the benefit, you know, people are better off with a high minimum wage with
2:07.0	15, 20 dollars an hour than they would be at the federal 725, which would be a
2:14.0	a starvation wage here in Seattle,
2:17.0	but that's not the model everywhere, Paul.
2:20.0	It is not.
2:21.0	It is not.
2:22.0	We are a laboratory of democracy here in the United States, right?
	...

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