Heather McGhee: The Disneyfication of American History

02/09/23 • 48 min

If you’ve seen Abby’s documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, you won’t forget the wisdom imparted by the formidable writer and policy analyst Heather McGee. In the film, Heather reminds us that the economy is not like the weather–it is actually something we can control. And, crucially, she tells a story about American history that’s not told often enough: how deep seated racism in the 20th Century helped unravel a whole host of government policies responsible for creating the largest middle class the world had ever seen. Because so much of their powerful and thought-provoking 2021 conversation never made it into the documentary, this week Abby goes into the vault to share an extended version. Too often, Heather tells Abby, American history gets “Disneyfied.” It's important, she says, that people know the truth, because “when we don't know what the powerful will do in order to keep power, we are vulnerable to the powerful doing it again”. Heather’s insights, based on her groundbreaking book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, help explain why so many Americans are working full time, yet unable to pay their bills.
Follow Heather @HeatherCMcGhee on Instagram and Facebook, @HMcGhee on Twitter.

EPISODE LINKS
Dumbo Crows (Disney Fandom)
How the Federal Government Built White Suburbia (Bloomberg)
Time to Fight: How the Powell memo convinced big business it was losing American hearts and minds (Slate)
How Slavery Inspired Modern Business Management (Boston Review)
Why Black workers still face a promotion and wage gap that’s costing the economy trillions (CNBC)
Insurance Policies on Slaves: New York Life’s Complicated Past (NY Times)

Previous Episode

Robert Reich: Fighting the Bullies (Corporate and Otherwise)

Kicking off the fourth Season of All Ears, Abby gets on the line with one of her economic heroes, Robert Reich. Reich understands the issues at the heart of The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, Abby’s new documentary, better than almost anyone, because he’s been speaking out about exploitative labor practices and corporate greed for decades. From within the halls of power, when Reich was Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, he was vocal about rising inequality, and he’s in no mood to stop now. In recent years, Reich has become one of the most powerful and effective voices explaining the inequality crisis in clear, unequivocal language. Over the course of their rousing conversation, Reich shares his vision for a bottom-up economics and provides some introspection on his own commitment to fighting inequality. He also clues Abby into the real cause of rising inflation last year (hint: it’s not labor!) and lets her know when he’ll believe corporations deserve the same rights as people (hint: something to do with Texas!)
EPISODE LINKS
Robert Reich on linkt.ree
Robert Reich's Substack
What Ownership Society? (The American Prospect)
Civil Right Workers Remembered 50 Years After Slaying (USA Today)
It’s A Wonderful Life Trailer
Republicans block bill requiring dark money groups to reveal donors (The Hill)
Meet The 24 Robber Barons Who Once Ruled America (Business Insider)
When Did Corporations Become People? (NPR)

Next Episode

Nick Hanauer: Ending the Protection Racket for the Rich

A week after President Joe Biden’s fiery State of the Union address focused on re-growing America’s middle class, Abby has a lively conversation with millionaire reformer Nick Hanauer about what Biden is doing and why it’s so important. Hanauer, a venture capitalist and activist, has long been sounding the alarm on our inequality crisis, warning that trouble is coming our way if nothing is done to address the problem. In fact, he argues that that trouble will likely involve angry people with pitchforks. We got a preview, he says, when President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol: “The toxic stew that is created when you make the tiniest sliver of us extremely wealthy, while everyone, even people in the 90th percentile feel like they're falling behind ...It just makes people mad and it should make people mad. I’m very sympathetic to that anger.” According to Hanauer, President Biden’s “middle-out” economic policies make him America’s first “post-Reagan” president, and that gives him hope. But much more still needs to change the system which among other things, gives, “moral cover to shitbags.” It’s important to take power from the very rich, he says, because they won't give up power voluntarily. “Jeff Bezos,” for instance, “will never wake up and say ‘Hey, I should really run Amazon.com differently.’” There aren’t rewards for empathy at the very top, Hanauer tells Abby. For billionaires like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Musk the rewards come from “ being cold-blooded and exploiting people”.
Follow Nick Hanauer on Twitter or Facebook. His podcast is Pitchfork Economics.
EPISODE LINKS
Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (American Economic Review, Vol. 84, No. 4, September, 1994)
Raising the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Kill Jobs; It Boosts Productivity, Says ITIF (ITIF)
2021 US GDP: $23.99 trillion (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
Data about the Capitol rioters serves another blow to the White, working-class Trump-supporter narrative (The Washington Post)
Power and Peril: 5 Takeaways on Amazon's Employment Machine (NY Times)

All Ears with Abigail Disney - Heather McGhee: The Disneyfication of American History

Transcript

Abigail Disney
You good?

Heather McGhee
I keep feeling like I'm grabbing lipstick from all over my face. Is it okay?

Abigail Disney
No, you’re good. We'll let you know if anything goes awry on the lipstick or any other front. Are we ready to go? We're speeding? Okay! Here we go!

Hi all, I'm Abigail Disney and welcome to All Ears. In recent months, I've been on the road with my new documentary, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales. In the film, I tell