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The Rick Smith Show 8-12-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_06]: It's time for the Rick Smith Show.
0:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, here is the voice of the working class, Rick Smith.
0:14
[SPEAKER_06]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:19
[SPEAKER_06]: This is the Rick Smith Show.
0:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks so much for being here.
0:23
[SPEAKER_06]: Today on the big program, lots to get to, lots to talk about, could not wait!
0:28
[SPEAKER_06]: to bring this up because, you know, in my state of Pennsylvania, we've always, we've always shown our religiosity right there on the arm.
0:39
[SPEAKER_06]: At least our Republican friends, our GOP friends have always had the religion right out there for us to smell.
0:46
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, following any of those things, don't get crazy.
0:52
[SPEAKER_06]: But a Pennsylvania state representative and I'm not gonna not gonna not gonna promote this person She decided that you know, now's a good time now's a good time with 250th anniversary of the country now's the time To to push again for for a day of the Bible and according to her September 10th
1:17
[SPEAKER_06]: You know Charlie Kirk was murdered and that was our turning point everything before that was perfectly fine And then September 11th the way of our enemies and then September 12th the day after September 11th the way back
1:34
[SPEAKER_06]: our heritage and foundation, the day of the Bible.
1:39
[SPEAKER_06]: And as she writes, as we celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary, join me in calling for Congress and the President to declare September 12th as the day of the Bible.
1:51
[SPEAKER_06]: And I started thinking about this.
1:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I started running through the whole idea because look,
1:57
[SPEAKER_06]: The Jefferson Bible, I'm okay with, took out the Hocus Pocus, took out a lot of the magicry, focused on philosophy, on being a decent person, on the actual preachings, you know, love thy neighbor as thyself, take care of the sick, the poor, the elderly, the stuff that's, you know, that was actually being taught.
2:22
[SPEAKER_06]: And I said, you know, I'm not entirely against people wanting to try and be better people.
2:29
[SPEAKER_06]: But the sad reality is is most of the folks that I know, especially the Red Hat folks, especially people who vote for Republican candidate who talk about how religious they are, tend to be, and I'm going to, I know I'm going to get some angry hate mail and I'm okay with that, because I'll defend it.
2:47
[SPEAKER_06]: The people who tell me how religious they are generally the worst people I've ever
2:52
[SPEAKER_06]: When you're leading off with how godly you are and how you love you some Jesus and drenched in the blood of Jesus and when you're saying Jesus is name over and over again hoping to get a reaction so you can go, oh Satan!
3:08
[SPEAKER_06]: When you're that person I generally think you're the worst, the worst kind of people because the reality is is someone who is a true Christian is someone who's doing good work
3:22
[SPEAKER_06]: who's really trying to make the lives of others a little bit better.
3:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And, you know, it's, again, you know, we've been doing this in, in my state for years, every, it's either the year of the Bible, a month of the Bible, a week of the Bible.
3:37
[SPEAKER_06]: And yet, I don't know that our legislators have ever really cracked it open, especially the people who doubt how important it is when they go and they cut funding for education and healthcare and for, especially for the disabled, and especially for the poor and the needy, you know, all those folks that, you know, Jesus did talk about.
3:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, I gotta tell you, one of my favorite memes on social media is a picture of Jesus with him with the words of, I didn't blanking say that because they do add a lot of things that maybe weren't sad and I, I find it interesting because you know, this is another one of those moments where I go, you know, these are the folks who decide they want to run for office, you know, they've had the calling.
4:25
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, the gotten the voices, I don't know where from, I'm not saying above, but the voices have told them that they are the people to run.
4:34
[SPEAKER_06]: And I look at the guy who's running for governor in Florida, guy named Bobby Williams.
4:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Bobby Williams was asked a simple question.
4:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Bobby Williams was asked about maternity leave.
4:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, well, this question.
4:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Support maternity leave, paid maternity leave for mothers?
4:57
[SPEAKER_04]: No, man.
4:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you say that?
4:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, you know, it's, so when we start supporting stuff, when does it end?
5:04
[SPEAKER_04]: You know what I'm saying?
5:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Corporations can put that, you know, but I don't know how that goes, but you know, we live in a generation that's got to work.
5:11
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we keep giving and giving and giving and giving.
5:14
[SPEAKER_04]: It comes to a point, wins and off and off.
5:16
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I understand, I'm in.
5:20
[SPEAKER_04]: every situation is different and you can't it's back to we don't live in a socialist country so you can't just give to one individual you know it's a economic status we live in a capitalist country you know we got a quick being socialist so there's some people out there that are wealthy that can do that but I know many many many many women who have a baby you can go to work next day you know because they got to pay bills you know so you run out
5:48
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, yes, we need to spend time with our kids, but obviously, you work to get out of poverty.
5:55
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, and you got to make that different and sacrifice, you know, and we have to have sacrifice in life.
5:59
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, Christians, you know, you learn to sacrifice, you, you crucify your flesh, right, to live in that spiritual realm.
6:05
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, so I believe that it ain't something we should give.
6:08
[SPEAKER_04]: And now, maybe a day or two or something like that, but full maternity leave and that kind of stuff.
6:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll see too, it's back to fruit.
6:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll see too many people women who can do it.
6:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I think today we've created a lazy generation to where what's next, maternity leave or you see sick pay right now and you see that and you see people take advantage of it.
6:30
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, so my thing is enough to know off of just charity and giving out.
6:33
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm a charitable person, you know, I'm obviously running a ministry that helps people, you know, but there's a difference in labeling and then creating a socialist country.
6:45
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh my goodness.
6:46
[SPEAKER_06]: Look, if I'm his campaign manager, I take that and I go you should probably it's time for you to move along.
6:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Clearly, it didn't take basic messaging 101.
6:55
[SPEAKER_06]: Rambled all over the map.
6:57
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't even know what the fruit thing was about.
7:01
[SPEAKER_06]: but you know I guess when does it end is the argument you know when does it end if we give women you know time to to heal after giving birth when does it end you know then they're going to want kids to be fed and clothed and when I want education and health care and then they're going to want you know a day off because we just keep giving and giving and giving evidently according to him
7:25
[SPEAKER_06]: And if you start thinking about it, okay, you know, just religion, because remember religion, we're a capitalist country, not a socialist, and you know, mothers, you're gonna have to get used to that, because, you know, he knows many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, I'm gonna doubt that.
7:50
[SPEAKER_06]: But according to him according to his words you heard him he knows many women many many many many many many many many many women Who right right back to work next day and I got it I got to be honest if if that is happening and I'm not saying that it isn't I I hope I hope I hope it's not I hope that's not the reality
8:12
[SPEAKER_06]: And if it is the reality that there are many, many, many, you know, on, like many, then we've got some real bad problems.
8:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I don't know, family values, but he knows many women who go back to work the next day and why, why did he say they go back?
8:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Because they've got bills, they're broke.
8:37
[SPEAKER_06]: And his solution is maybe we'd give him a day, maybe two.
8:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, because if we're going to give them this, you know, this is going to be they're going to be lazy because this is the lazy generation got to work right and then they're going to want other things you know like like sick pay you know when they're when they're sick they're going to want to get better and possibly have that right.
8:59
[SPEAKER_06]: And I love the fact that he chimes into, I'm a charitable person.
9:02
[SPEAKER_06]: I run a ministry again, back to my point of the people who claim their religiosity, who wear it literally on their sleeves, the worst people I have ever met.
9:16
[SPEAKER_06]: The more someone tells me that they are hyper-religious and they go to church every week and they pop and pre-men and all of that stuff, the worst they are.
9:27
[SPEAKER_06]: And these seem to be the people who feel entitled to run for office.
9:32
[SPEAKER_06]: And I don't know which this is a chicken or eggs scenario for me.
9:35
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know if it's there are that many people who are that twisted in their faith that they would choose someone like Bobby Williams or the woman here in Pennsylvania who thought, hey, there's a great opportunity to get some attention.
9:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Let's make it the year of the day of the Bible.
9:58
[SPEAKER_06]: that we're not all crazy and not all horrible, but the reality is these people want a popularity contest.
10:05
[SPEAKER_06]: This woman want a popularity contest.
10:07
[SPEAKER_06]: Bobby Williams, Bobby Williams, he's running to win a popularity contest.
10:11
[SPEAKER_06]: If Florida votes for him as governor, what does that say about the people of Florida?
10:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, there shouldn't be a woman on this planet that would vote for Bobby Williams.
10:22
[SPEAKER_06]: So at least half of the population would go, no, and I would hope I would hope beyond hope that at least half of the men,
10:32
[SPEAKER_06]: The same man, the rational man.
10:35
[SPEAKER_06]: Not the insells, not the ones who are angry because you know, fill in the blank, but the men who watch their wives give birth and have to struggle, raising children and having to do all the things that raising children and doing it right, in tales.
10:52
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, it wasn't too long ago.
10:57
[SPEAKER_06]: Probably a month ago.
11:01
[SPEAKER_06]: someone that knows our family.
11:05
[SPEAKER_06]: I saw it at the supermarket and he said, hey, I saw your son.
11:08
[SPEAKER_06]: He's turned out to be a very good man.
11:12
[SPEAKER_06]: You guys did a really good job.
11:15
[SPEAKER_06]: Your kids are always so polite.
11:17
[SPEAKER_06]: They're always focused.
11:19
[SPEAKER_06]: You raised good kids.
11:22
[SPEAKER_06]: And I was like, well, you know, thank you, but it was my wife, you know, my wife was clearly the driver of that.
11:27
[SPEAKER_06]: She was the stay at home mother.
11:28
[SPEAKER_06]: She was the one who was there every day, made sure that everyone was on track.
11:32
[SPEAKER_06]: And I give her all of the credit.
11:34
[SPEAKER_06]: Now to be honest, still have a little part of it.
11:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Still was the focal point of the male role model that I've worked very hard to attain.
11:44
[SPEAKER_06]: But I said, look, my wife did a great job with them.
11:47
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm proud of her and I'm proud of them.
11:50
[SPEAKER_06]: And thank you.
11:51
[SPEAKER_06]: I appreciate the compliment.
11:53
[SPEAKER_06]: But I just think that these are how kids should be.
11:58
[SPEAKER_06]: And I didn't really think about that until I saw these stories.
12:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And we hear a lot from the right about family values.
12:11
[SPEAKER_06]: We hear a lot from the right about, you know, it's a spare of the rod, spoil the child.
12:17
[SPEAKER_06]: I've never had to hit my child.
12:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, do they think I will?
12:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I think they, I think there's, I think there's some fear there.
12:25
[SPEAKER_06]: They know if they were ever disrespectful, you could feel the wrath of dead, but I don't feel the need to have to hit them.
12:36
[SPEAKER_06]: Am I against it?
12:37
[SPEAKER_06]: No.
12:37
[SPEAKER_06]: I think sometimes the ultimate disrespects do need a little bit of an attention getter, but not violence.
12:45
[SPEAKER_06]: What I hear from my religious community is a lot of violence, a lot of fire and brimstone and you know, seeing and not hurt, you know the garbage.
12:54
[SPEAKER_06]: But it got me thinking about this whole the moment that we're in in this country's history.
13:01
[SPEAKER_06]: The fact that it seems like we as a society
13:05
[SPEAKER_06]: are broken.
13:05
[SPEAKER_06]: And I know, look, I've talked about social media being the place where people are the worst versions of themselves and the worst behavior gets the most attention.
13:14
[SPEAKER_06]: That's that.
13:16
[SPEAKER_06]: In the real world with dealing with people face to face.
13:18
[SPEAKER_06]: And this is why I keep advocating for any chance you get talk to a neighbor, talk to someone in the line of the supermarket, talk to someone wherever you are, talk to people.
13:28
[SPEAKER_06]: It's one of the things that drives my kids crazy is, you know, they tell their friends, you know, be ready because, you know, dad's gonna start talking to a stranger.
13:38
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I believe you have to talk to people and you have to give and take.
13:44
[SPEAKER_06]: Because the people who tell us that they believe and family values and what a family should be and are defining what a man is or what a woman is.
13:59
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, the question, well, what is a woman?
14:01
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know that the people asking that question would know what a woman is if a woman jumped up and bit them right in the, well, you know.
14:12
[SPEAKER_06]: I really don't.
14:13
[SPEAKER_06]: They have an idealized version of what a woman in their mind is, but in the real world,
14:21
[SPEAKER_06]: If you are against the idea of a woman getting this day home for a little bit to recover from childbirth and I don't know heaven forbid have an opportunity to bond with that child before having to be shoveled back into the workforce in order to pay bills to keep a roof over their heads, there is something wrong with your family value structure.
14:42
[SPEAKER_06]: There is something wrong with you.
14:45
[SPEAKER_06]: And to run for a government office on the platform of basically screw you, honey, I'm confused.
14:56
[SPEAKER_06]: And then the college socialism, because that's the buzzword of the day, isn't it?
15:04
[SPEAKER_06]: If we truly believed in the book, if we truly believed in family values, if we truly knew
15:15
[SPEAKER_06]: We wouldn't have the kind of blinders that the religious right keeps saddling us with.
15:24
[SPEAKER_06]: It's honestly scary.
15:28
[SPEAKER_06]: the direction that they want to take us.
15:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And I go back to my, you know, I happen to go to an Indiana fever basketball game, which I enjoyed immensely.
15:36
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm a huge fan of the WNBA.
15:38
[SPEAKER_06]: But then again, I've been a fan of women's basketball for a while because when my daughters were younger, I used to take them to the final, the sweet 16 games, you know, the tournament games.
15:49
[SPEAKER_06]: We would go away spend a weekend watching basketball and it was entertaining.
15:54
[SPEAKER_06]: It was,
15:55
[SPEAKER_06]: For my daughters, it was being able to see someone that looks like them performing at a high level and making them think, hey, maybe I can do that.
16:08
[SPEAKER_06]: But I had the cultural opportunity to sit and listen to people, be the worst versions of the misalves in public, and then finding other people who want to be that as well.
16:20
[SPEAKER_06]: I must have been in the anti-trans section.
16:22
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know.
16:23
[SPEAKER_06]: And as I've said before, the trans issue is not my issue.
16:28
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't understand it.
16:28
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm never going to understand it.
16:30
[SPEAKER_06]: And people who have told me that they're transitioning or have transitioned, I've always said the same thing.
16:36
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't understand it.
16:37
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm never going to understand it.
16:38
[SPEAKER_06]: But I'm grateful that I don't, but I wish you the best.
16:43
[SPEAKER_06]: I hope this is what you want.
16:44
[SPEAKER_06]: I hope this makes you happy.
16:46
[SPEAKER_06]: I hope the best.
16:49
[SPEAKER_06]: I hope you
16:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that's the right approach.
16:54
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, I also say it doesn't make you special.
16:56
[SPEAKER_06]: Nobody special were all the same.
17:00
[SPEAKER_06]: I was in this section of the religious crowd.
17:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Cheering, they were cheering on Sophie cutting him who is now viewed as the mega anti-trans basketball player.
17:11
[SPEAKER_06]: So now everyone bought their daughters to grow up like Sophie and I kept watching these people, these families, ruin the event for their children who were just thrilled.
17:23
[SPEAKER_06]: These little girls who were just thrilled to see women play basketball.
17:28
[SPEAKER_06]: And I got to be honest, some of the women on the court didn't make me proud either.
17:34
[SPEAKER_06]: because they were emulating a lot of the worst characteristics of we men uh... and with the bullying and that that the taunting and all of that stuff whereas those kids in that that that arena they just want to see girls play basketball and they wanted to see them do it at a high level
17:54
[SPEAKER_06]: And, you know, while I was listening to some of the commentary, yeah, I can see you want your daughter to emulate someone who has high standards, who holds themselves very well, who holds themselves above reproach.
18:10
[SPEAKER_06]: But the reason that you've chosen this person is because of their political stance, it's kind of crazy to me.
18:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Very bizarre.
18:18
[SPEAKER_06]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
18:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Email me, Rick at therixmithshow.com.
18:25
[SPEAKER_06]: Our, you know, my, our religious brethren, are, are they, are they right?
18:32
[SPEAKER_06]: And you know, the people who wear it on their sleeves and, and judge everyone, and I know, judge, not, and you shall not be judged, but hey, hey, September 12th, the day of the Bible.
18:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Does that mean all the rest of the days are not rick at the ricksmithsshow.com,
18:57
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
19:01
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 2013.
19:04
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the day a somewhat unexpected new union formed in Bangor Man.
19:10
[SPEAKER_06]: Local 207 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers represents Lobster Fishermen.
19:17
[SPEAKER_06]: Lobster fishermen are known for being fiercely independent, so it surprised many when some started talking union.
19:25
[SPEAKER_06]: One of those to bring up the early idea of forming a union was Magnus Lane, a fisherman originally from Iceland.
19:31
[SPEAKER_06]: There was cause for concern in the main Lobster industry that year.
19:35
[SPEAKER_06]: A glut of Lobsters had driven prices down to a 40 year low.
19:39
[SPEAKER_06]: At the same time, fuel and bait prices continued to rise.
19:43
[SPEAKER_06]: More than 100 Lobster men and women attended that first meeting.
19:47
[SPEAKER_06]: They elected officers and settled on bylaws.
19:50
[SPEAKER_06]: In a television interview, newly elected local president Rocky Alley explained where the ones who catch the lobster we should be able to control the price.
19:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Over the next year, membership grew to 600 members from up and down the main coast.
20:04
[SPEAKER_06]: A year after the union was founded, boat captain Julie Eaton explained the importance of the new union in a newspaper interview.
20:11
[SPEAKER_06]: She said, for the first time, we feel like we have a voice.
20:15
[SPEAKER_06]: For the first time, we feel hope that we can protect our way of life.
20:20
[SPEAKER_06]: While some lobster fishermen support the union, others have organized against unionization.
20:25
[SPEAKER_06]: But the union has been able to win some legislative protections.
20:28
[SPEAKER_06]: For example, they were able to ensure that lobster fishermen can keep their fishing license while on active military duty.
20:36
[SPEAKER_06]: This union continues to chart new waters in the fight.
20:40
[SPEAKER_06]: for working people in May.
20:42
[SPEAKER_06]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
20:46
[SPEAKER_06]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's at Labor History in two.
21:08
[SPEAKER_06]: So again, the Trump administration going after public education, this assault on the federal head start program, the safeguards that were put into place, you know, like limiting class sizes and having disability screenings, you know, putting bus monitors on buses, paying, having paste standards, anti-expulsion protections, things like that, evidently this is the new deregulation.
21:38
[SPEAKER_06]: because evidently officials are calling call for flexibility they need flexibility and the reality is we know what's we know what this is really going to be going to turn into.
21:49
[SPEAKER_06]: This is a way for the the folks the anti public education people to be able to get their snow deeper into education funding for the private interest religious schools, private schools and you know the the corporate
22:09
[SPEAKER_06]: uh... so we're not going to be about to start warehousing poor kids again is what they're going to do it if a poor kid acts up we can we can kick them out now the weird thing is they're going to couple republican senators that have chimed in as well so let's not let's not say all of the republicans just most of them but what they're doing is there they're they're they frame this these deregulate they framed all this this whole overhaul as deregulation
22:35
[SPEAKER_06]: But we do know what's going to happen.
22:36
[SPEAKER_06]: They're going to they're moving the core protections for kids and families Okay, so it's going to be all the class sizes disability because you know, we can't have disabled kids at a classroom And Understand head start is not just babysitting which we hear this all the time You know, they're just paying for babysitting.
22:57
[SPEAKER_06]: It's far more than preschool it connects low-income kids with early learning
23:03
[SPEAKER_06]: gets meals into them, helps with health and developmental services, family supports, there's so much here.
23:10
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, I'll be honest with you, I wish we had a much more robust head start program, because I'll be quite frank, a little peaved at the fact that we paid for pre-k for our kids to get the kind of head start that I, I, I, I, I, I want for every kid going into kindergarten.
23:30
[SPEAKER_06]: And what ended up happening is our kids were so far ahead because we had invested in them to get this opportunity.
23:36
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, eventually, they just receded back in the pack because, look, large class sizes with teachers, they're gonna go to the kids who need the most help.
23:45
[SPEAKER_06]: First, it's how it works, like it or not.
23:51
[SPEAKER_06]: But if every kid were to go into kindergarten ready to be in kindergarten, much better opportunities.
23:59
[SPEAKER_06]: And look, I'm a big fan of smaller classes, qualified staff who make a reasonable, reasonable wage, these aren't red tape items, these are essential to have a safe attempt of high quality early education system.
24:13
[SPEAKER_06]: You want good people to produce good results.
24:17
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think if you remove federal standards, you risk doing what's been done in the past.
24:28
[SPEAKER_06]: We're going to have zip code lottery if you live in a good zip code you're going to get a good turnout, but if you know you're one of those poor kids in a poor area, we're now it's all about the profit and the warehousing this could be a problem.
24:41
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think we getting oversight will most certainly create opportunities for the worst of us.
24:58
[SPEAKER_06]: Robin Steele without delivering any really quality services.
25:04
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, the administration is selectively regulating some things.
25:11
[SPEAKER_06]: English only, that's gonna be the requirement.
25:15
[SPEAKER_06]: They're rolling back health and safety and education that's managed by, again, promoting ideology.
25:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, understand, a head start serves about three quarters of a million children from low income families.
25:27
[SPEAKER_06]: And the reason I think a lot of people don't care as well, not my kid, and I go, again, I come back to myself.
25:34
[SPEAKER_06]: We were never going to qualify for a Head Start program, because we're fortunate.
25:39
[SPEAKER_06]: We've done fairly well, not rich, but certainly not poor.
25:46
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm giving you the radical self interest.
25:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Why everyone should be concerned.
25:53
[SPEAKER_06]: because this isn't, well, the poor gets up them.
25:56
[SPEAKER_06]: No, this isn't opportunity for all kids to do better.
25:58
[SPEAKER_06]: I think our kids would have done better, had all of the other kids in the class been at their standard.
26:03
[SPEAKER_06]: I think they would have been pushed a lot further.
26:05
[SPEAKER_06]: I think they would have done better.
26:06
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, look, my kids have done great.
26:08
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm thrilled with the education that they've got and what we've helped push the poor, but I think it could have been even better.
26:16
[SPEAKER_06]: And I also think we need more investment.
26:21
[SPEAKER_06]: I've said before, I don't think K through 12 is sufficient today, especially in the fact that it's rare to have a single income home.
26:31
[SPEAKER_06]: If both parents are now forced into the workplace, there's going to have to be, and I know, I know, but Rick, you know, it's all clarified, baby, sitting anyway, no, it can be high quality and educational.
26:44
[SPEAKER_06]: It can be experiential.
26:47
[SPEAKER_06]: It can make lives better.
26:49
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think you have to go pre-K the Head Start Program all the way through 14, not 12, to where when you graduate, you've got an associate's degree or you have a skilled trade that you are, you're tool ready.
27:05
[SPEAKER_06]: But the question is, do you think we're gonna do that?
27:07
[SPEAKER_06]: Do you think we're gonna invest in our kids in that way?
27:10
[SPEAKER_06]: Especially if there's not gonna really, really be a profit motive on the other side for one or two politically connected, you know, chose who, you just go, when will we learn?
27:23
[SPEAKER_06]: And the answer is probably never.
27:27
[SPEAKER_06]: but this should upset every parent.
27:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Cause this is going to, this is gonna force classrooms back even further.
27:33
[SPEAKER_06]: This is gonna be that much more difficult for teachers to catch up on.
27:36
[SPEAKER_06]: This is gonna be much more costly for school districts to remediate.
27:40
[SPEAKER_06]: This is bad policy.
27:44
[SPEAKER_06]: But this is a priority of the Trump administration and something oddly enough was in the plan.
27:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Wanna hear your thoughts?
27:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Email me, ricketerricksmithshow.com, quick break, right back.
28:00
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
28:03
[SPEAKER_06]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1937.
28:06
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the day the International Long Shormons and Warehouseman's Union was founded.
28:12
[SPEAKER_06]: After the victorious strike of 1934 that established the Union Hiring Hall, West Coast Union leaders embarked on an inland campaign to organize the thousands of warehouse workers who handled the ship goods.
28:25
[SPEAKER_06]: but West Coast dock workers overwhelmingly chose to join the CIO after it was expelled from the AFL earlier that year.
28:33
[SPEAKER_06]: They found that the ILA planned to abandon the warehouse workers they had worked so hard to organize.
28:39
[SPEAKER_06]: They also opposed dues assessments to fight the CIO and disagreed with the ILA's hostility to minimum wage laws, social security, and unemployment insurance.
28:49
[SPEAKER_06]: Radicals like Harry Bridges.
28:51
[SPEAKER_06]: and others had established themselves not only as workers' leaders, but also let attacks on Jim Crow racism in the ranks and in the industry.
29:00
[SPEAKER_06]: The success of the 1934 strike was due in part to the welcoming of blacks into the ranks of the union.
29:07
[SPEAKER_06]: In his book, Workers on the Waterfront, historian Bruce Nelson notes that, quote,
29:16
[SPEAKER_06]: was an important factor in the Union's expansion into Hawaii, not only on the waterfront, but among sugar and pineapple plantation workers.
29:24
[SPEAKER_06]: The triumph of the I.L.W.U.
29:26
[SPEAKER_06]: in Hawaiian agriculture brought about a degree of fraternization across racial lines that few had thought possible.
29:33
[SPEAKER_06]: Since then, the Union has beat back numerous tapped heartly and McCarthy era attacks.
29:39
[SPEAKER_06]: More recently, the ILWU has been in the forefront of broader social justice struggles, leading walkouts and work stoppages for various political causes.
29:49
[SPEAKER_06]: Today, it represents close to 60,000 workers, including those locals that initially refuse to affiliate.
29:56
[SPEAKER_06]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: The great thing about art towns is of course the artists in their art.
30:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So why are so many town officials deliberately and stupidly driving artists out of town?
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I live in such a place, Austin, Texas.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: For both who years, it welcomed and nurtured a blessing of creators from buskers to tap dancers, muralists to neon sign artists.
30:24
[SPEAKER_00]: neon signs?
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, magical artisans who can bend glass tubes into delightful expressive shapes that light up to identify a community and culture is something more than just another concrete and steel erection of corporate power.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: One such creative is Todd Sanders, an Austin pop artist who for three decades has preserved and advanced this eclectic community's proud claim to be keeping Austin weird.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I was personally plugged into that identity when Susan Gamarko, Floyd Domino, and I broadcast a two-hour daily radio talk show across America from a down-home Austin restaurant named ThreadGills.
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Behind us on the stage was a Todd Sanders gym, a three by five foot neon sign, flashing high-toward radio on the air, but multimillion dollar developers backed by a city council now promoting Austin as a Mecca for high-tech billionaires have no room for funky grassroots witness.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: they jacked up city property taxes and artists rents in a corporate gentrification frenzy that his squeeze centers neon shop and others out of Austin.
31:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The good news, though, is that art persevere's, so sender's studio and art gallery found a welcoming spot 80 miles east of us in the small town of Roundtop.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiter saying, but Roundtop Artisms will be next if we keep letting profiteers with no values beyond money to find who we are and restricting who we can become.
32:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:11
[SPEAKER_06]: So again, I look at the most recent jobs number.
32:13
[SPEAKER_06]: Not great.
32:15
[SPEAKER_06]: And again, for everybody who sent me emails, going, no, Rick, you're wrong.
32:18
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, the policies are working.
32:20
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, we just have to, we have to do it more.
32:22
[SPEAKER_06]: I keep saying, I really hate to see if we keep doing what Trump is doing, what six months will get us.
32:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Because six months ago, we were talking about how,
32:33
[SPEAKER_06]: The economy was not great for working class people from the folks wearing the blue collars, but the white collar folks were doing okay There were some jobs available.
32:40
[SPEAKER_06]: There was still some some growth going on This latest jobs reports hitting everybody in fact the revision even goes even further backward Another what was 103,000 jobs they downgraded over the previous two months so
32:55
[SPEAKER_06]: we're not looking at a great economy even for the folks wearing the white colors which are supposedly the people are generally immune and that's why I got to go back to the person I talked to six months ago predicted a lot of the bad stuff coming because of these policies that's why I've asked sir he's definitely come share some thoughts she didn't economist over at the Center for American Progress you can check out their website americanprogress dot org sir that's what I can tell you
33:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much for having me.
33:23
[SPEAKER_06]: So I go back to our conversation six months ago, where you know, hey, the blue collar's folks, they were struggling, but white collar folks they were gonna be okay, they were still some opportunity as I remember our conversation.
33:34
[SPEAKER_06]: And you were saying, look, you know, the reality is these are some bad policies.
33:37
[SPEAKER_06]: And this would be for the war.
33:39
[SPEAKER_06]: So we hadn't even gotten to how bad that was gonna turn out.
33:43
[SPEAKER_06]: But here we are six months later in these, a business, I cannot imagine.
33:48
[SPEAKER_06]: Had a Biden jobs report like this come out?
33:51
[SPEAKER_06]: What would have happened?
33:52
[SPEAKER_06]: But here we've got this one.
33:54
[SPEAKER_06]: What do you make of that report?
33:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it was a really mixed report.
33:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it was a bad one, but it had some really weird stuff in it that all of us were trying to make sense of.
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So we lost 23,000 jobs, like you said, and then the prior two months were revised downwards by over 100,000 jobs.
34:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So all of that is a pretty negative sign for the economy, but then we also saw the unemployment rate go down, which is typically a good thing.
34:22
[SPEAKER_02]: But not in this case because the reason the unemployment rate went down is because so many people left the labor force altogether.
34:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So those are people that might have been searching for months and months.
34:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And they finally just said, you know what?
34:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm moving back home with mom and dad.
34:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I need to take a break.
34:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like these are just some
34:42
[SPEAKER_02]: really wild numbers for me to kind of wrap my head around.
34:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And especially when we were expecting maybe some bumps and some working class kind of jobs and you know leisure and hospitality and retail during the world cup, that just didn't happen.
34:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So
34:59
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, really weird stuff going on in here.
35:02
[SPEAKER_06]: No, look, you know, I know some people who, you know, they're unemployment ended and they're just like, you know, I'm going to have to go do something and they become gig workers or they take on, you know, under the table kind of jobs or stuff just to make ends meet, but they're not technically counted as employed anymore.
35:17
[SPEAKER_06]: and we go through this every during every administration because they want to use that unemployment number to go the economy's great look at the unemployment number but never really look at the participation rate which again under this administration keeps falling because the policies are look it's just bad.
35:33
[SPEAKER_06]: I wanted him to do well.
35:35
[SPEAKER_06]: I wanted him to invest heavily in infrastructure.
35:38
[SPEAKER_06]: I wanted him to continue the investments in renewable energies.
35:41
[SPEAKER_06]: I wanted him to do all the things that we were on the path for.
35:44
[SPEAKER_06]: But no, evidently we're not going to do those things.
35:47
[SPEAKER_06]: We're just going to bomb things and even that was supposed to spur job growth These numbers don't bear that out
35:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, I would say that bombing things and then at least, maybe not the best jobs program.
36:06
[SPEAKER_02]: What is happening is gas prices, oil prices, all that is rising, and that increases and put costs for industry, right?
36:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think you're not only seeing the effect of the Iran war, you're also seeing the effects of tariff policy,
36:23
[SPEAKER_02]: We are down in like manufacturing has been a little bit better the last few months, but we are down overall in manufacturing by over 50,000 jobs since Trump implemented his tariff policies.
36:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, I really don't think these things are contributing to labor force growth.
36:41
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, it's very apparent from last week's jobs report that they are not.
36:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I think especially for people who are not currently working and employed, it's a really difficult time.
36:53
[SPEAKER_02]: The hires rate is still very low.
36:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It went up a little bit in June, but again, we're not really seeing that churn that we like to see so that people are
37:05
[SPEAKER_02]: are getting into new jobs, and so that gives me a lot of concern.
37:10
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I look at, I got a couple emails from people going, oh, you're just, you're gleeful that these job numbers are because you can blame Trump, and you can blame Trump's policies.
37:17
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to look, you know, the buck stop somewhere, and it's the guy who's running the ship that you generally blame when things are going awry.
37:25
[SPEAKER_06]: now properly pointed out the other day I had a guess you said look the economy was slowing under Biden we were we were we were coming down things were we're kind of leveling off and I read some of the job numbers at the end of the Biden term which you know the his last six months were 68th or 88,071,000
37:42
[SPEAKER_06]: 244,261,377,000 December, which is Christmas, and then 143,000 in January when he left, not negative 23,000.
37:46
[SPEAKER_06]: And this is where I go, yeah, okay, things may have been, you know,
38:00
[SPEAKER_06]: but not negative territory.
38:02
[SPEAKER_06]: And that was a long time ago.
38:05
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the beginning of 25.
38:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And we're now towards the end of 26.
38:10
[SPEAKER_06]: Trump's policies are now fully in place.
38:13
[SPEAKER_06]: We're now seeing the result of this.
38:15
[SPEAKER_06]: Or do you think that's unfair?
38:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, no, we are, I mean, the, a lot of the inflation we're seeing right now is a direct result of Trump's policy, even the Federal Reserve has said that.
38:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, whenever we look at current inflation rates, the Federal Reserve has backed out the, what the inflation would be if we hadn't done these tariff policies.
38:39
[SPEAKER_02]: gone into the war and they say it would have been within that 2.2% range that would have been comfortable.
38:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Now we're at, you know, 3.5% and wages just aren't keeping up with that growth.
38:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And whenever we do have such high inflation, it affects everything and includes like borrowing costs.
38:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So like that affects businesses, that affects their hiring.
38:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It also affects like your, you know, gas at the pump.
39:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It affects your ability to take on a mortgage at a good rate.
39:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I direct result of policy.
39:11
[SPEAKER_06]: So I would guess I would argue, and maybe you'll agree, the antithesis of winning.
39:18
[SPEAKER_06]: into this discipline.
39:20
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm just gonna, maybe you're gonna throw that out there because here here's the thing.
39:23
[SPEAKER_06]: You talked about the effect that inflation keeps going up and we were told that this administration was gonna be the inflation killer.
39:28
[SPEAKER_06]: It was gonna be, it was gonna be utopia day, one a bucket gallon for gas, eggs, it'd be a bucket dozen.
39:34
[SPEAKER_06]: It was gonna be just just as workers utopia according to my red hats.
39:38
[SPEAKER_06]: And yet I see this report,
39:40
[SPEAKER_06]: From the beginning of this year that U.S. domestic income, the percentage going to wages and salaries, the stuff that we working people punch a clock to take home is now I'd probably the lowest rate since the depression at about 43% of the gross domestic income going to workers.
40:00
[SPEAKER_06]: And I, I've been really amused at why people are telling me that this is so, but my favorite I gotta tell you is this is all because of Nixon taking us off the gold standard I think that's the greatest excuse because nobody really wants to talk about with the real reasons for workers standard of living going down and that's the abuse and the evisceration of labor unions and their ability to fight for better wage at hours and conditions but I want to get your thoughts.
40:29
[SPEAKER_06]: Looking at that number, is there a reason why the working people are getting less and well, we've got a billionaire class second the nun?
40:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, definitely the labor union decline is part of it.
40:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that is maybe one of the biggest pieces.
40:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But then there's also just the fact that like so so many of our recent tax
40:59
[SPEAKER_02]: made the inequality between the ultra wealthy and the working class even worse.
41:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like the most recent tax bill that extended TCA and extended a lot of the tax cuts and added more really really wasn't given away to the wealthy.
41:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's you know.
41:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That has been the general theme since the, you know, the 70s and 80s and I think now we're starting to really see that play out with workers wages falling especially under these inflationary conditions.
41:37
[SPEAKER_06]: So, but for me to look, you know, my whole life, I've been told, you know, we live in a meritocracy, Sarah, some meritocracy, you work hard, you play by the rules you get ahead.
41:45
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the calculus that I was raised to believe in.
41:48
[SPEAKER_06]: And you talked to any working person, you know, they believe, if I just work harder, I'm going to get ahead.
41:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to be okay.
41:53
[SPEAKER_06]: It's going to be great.
41:55
[SPEAKER_06]: and you know this idea that that you know if you work harder you will get ahead that's been broken for a very long time and there are tons of graphs and you as an economist love those those charts and the alligator jaws and all of that stuff but productivity has risen incredibly faster than anywhere near wages have so somebody took those productivity gains and put it in their pocket that didn't go to the people who were like me believing that you know if I just work
42:24
[SPEAKER_06]: but somehow someone's been picking my pocket and it seems to me to be well The tax code as you've pointed out a big part of it, but it's also the fact that employers Don't have to negotiate with with with workers or workers representatives and they can just hire fire get rid of do whatever and this is where we are I think that needs to be said more and more and more because
42:46
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm so tired of hearing dumb stuff like it's nixon taking us off the gold standard or it's the fed you know we were great before 19 30 I'm tired of hearing dumb stuff Sarah.
42:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I do not think it's nixon taking us off the gold standard.
43:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it does much more to do with the way we negotiate wages now.
43:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I also think this is an extremely problematic for younger people, especially with the rise of AI.
43:20
[SPEAKER_02]: We are really starting to see young people be some of the first to be affected by these AI softwares, but also just technology in general taking over some of those
43:34
[SPEAKER_02]: roles that would have been filled.
43:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like this month, I wrote a longer piece about how young people's employment to population ratios are falling.
43:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, some are jobs aren't what they used to be.
43:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, you know, that's especially concerning for our future.
43:50
[SPEAKER_06]: But Sarah, haven't you heard?
43:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Young people don't want to work.
43:53
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, they're lazy.
43:54
[SPEAKER_06]: They want to be on their phones.
43:55
[SPEAKER_06]: They don't want to work.
43:57
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, their parents don't make them work.
43:59
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, when I was a kid, my mother said,
44:03
[SPEAKER_06]: You're going to have to figure out how to earn the money, but go right on ahead, you know, and I did, as I think my whole generation did, but those jobs aren't available and, you know, as you point out the technology, it's one thing, but also, I think the thing that a lot of people miss is those those front level jobs, those that first job, now being competed with mom and dad because they need those jobs and I think of myself, you know, I delivered a paper newspapers from the time I was eight all the way until I was at a high school.
44:30
[SPEAKER_06]: Um, you can't get a, when newspapers were still popular, you couldn't get a kid for a newspaper because mom and dad were driving around in their cars delivering them because that had become an extra gig economy job that could support the family as we're before.
44:45
[SPEAKER_06]: That was just the kid's baseball card mind.
44:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think there's definitely, so when I think of the jobs that young people often work in, over seven, I think it's over 70% of them work in leisure and hospitality and retail jobs.
45:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And to be for myself, I worked at McDonald's when I was teenager.
45:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And whenever I think about the new technologies live come in and kind of replace those jobs like those early jobs sitting at the counter working the cash register talking to people that's been often replaced by like he asks and things of that nature.
45:21
[SPEAKER_02]: The last two months we saw again declining jobs in both retail and leisure and hospitality despite the fact that we had this huge stimulating economic event with the world cup.
45:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And so when teens and young folks are trying to get in.
45:36
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not not only competing, but like there are just less jobs to be had in general.
45:41
[SPEAKER_06]: No, you're not wrong, look.
45:43
[SPEAKER_06]: And I worked at a fast food restaurant for a very short period of time myself until I got fired because I wasn't good at it.
45:49
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't people well.
45:51
[SPEAKER_06]: Evidently so that didn't that didn't go well.
45:53
[SPEAKER_06]: And but you know, someone was right there to take that spot from behind me.
45:57
[SPEAKER_06]: But you're right.
45:58
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, you're seeing less and less young people in those jobs.
46:00
[SPEAKER_06]: In fact, when when I go through the
46:03
[SPEAKER_06]: There's the drive through everyone's my age and older, which is kind of frightening given the fact that the woman I see every once in a while has got to be in her 80s And sadly because I've asked her I got this is the hobbies.
46:15
[SPEAKER_06]: You can know I got to pay for medicine I got to pay for I got to pay bills We've done a really bad job especially for folks who who weren't fortunate in their work lives Then now I have to work till they die and then taking that job from a teenager or someone who might need the experience I
46:29
[SPEAKER_06]: We've got everything sort of kind of crazy all over the place, don't wait.
46:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, social security is obviously not enough anymore.
46:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it never really was supposed to be enough.
46:41
[SPEAKER_02]: But we also, you know, the idea that Medicare is going to pay for everything is just not true.
46:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you have a lot of folks, you know, you have this uptick and people working well into their 60s, 70s, as you said, even their 80s.
46:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is going to be a huge shift in our economy as well.
47:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It is very, very disturbing.
47:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that we don't have a good solution for people to fully retire whenever they need to.
47:10
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I'm right there with you.
47:12
[SPEAKER_06]: No, so last line of question I've got for it, because you know, the sad reality is we're in this, this very bizarre time.
47:18
[SPEAKER_06]: And I keep coming back to where we're going and the arguments that I've gotten from people when talking about this.
47:25
[SPEAKER_06]: And especially about Trump's policies, there are true believers who believe you know, much like the trickle-down loyalists who are still saying we haven't done enough of those policies to make it work.
47:37
[SPEAKER_06]: Do you see something positive in the next six months based on, you know, what we've seen in the past six months because I don't I don't expect Trump to change his policies.
47:46
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't see it about face coming here even in the midterms if there is a sea change.
47:53
[SPEAKER_06]: I do see, you know, things getting progressively worse or are you seeing some crystal ball that I'm not.
48:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, no, I think the one thing that could happen is we resolve this war and Iran that would help, but it's going to take about six, probably like six months to even see the full result of that and lowering prices.
48:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think,
48:16
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, I don't anticipate any, you know, major change in policy coming up in the next in the next few months before the midterms.
48:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I do think people should be prepared to be an environment or costs are high, wages are not rising fast enough and jobs are a few and far between.
48:38
[SPEAKER_06]: I got to follow up on this because you said something that just caught my attention and and because everyone's talking about lowering prices and and maybe I'm maybe I'm the one who's dense in all this, but I'm a firm believer in prices don't just magically come down, you know,
48:52
[SPEAKER_06]: in my lifetime everything's gotten progressively more expensive and I've all often argued that as inflation happens and it's going to your wages need to keep up with that.
49:02
[SPEAKER_06]: We need to have stronger unions to fight for better better raises for folks to keep up with that inflation.
49:07
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't see wages receding far enough down to make us workers utopia as I was promised.
49:15
[SPEAKER_06]: I see it as we need to be fighting for much higher wage increases to keep up with inflation.
49:20
[SPEAKER_06]: Is that the wrong way to look at it?
49:22
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I'm tired of hearing people.
49:24
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe I'm thinking wrong.
49:25
[SPEAKER_06]: But I'm tired of hearing people say we just need the lower prices.
49:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I don't know that's going to happen.
49:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you hit on a good point that I think has been left out of the conversation a lot.
49:35
[SPEAKER_02]: There's two sides to a price equation, right?
49:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You can lower prices or you can make wages grow fast enough to keep up with them.
49:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that way each side of the equation has really not received enough attention and I think that is the role again unions that's you know the role tax policy, you know going back to the earlier conversation about older workers older workers didn't.
50:01
[SPEAKER_02]: have to completely rely on social security in the past because unions guaranteed the pensions that really helped their wages keep up with cost of living and they were often indexed to inflation so that continued to grow over time and we just haven't seen these things continue to exist like they used to and so
50:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, yeah, I'm, I guess I'm just really concerned about where we go from here.
50:24
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm right there with you.
50:24
[SPEAKER_06]: But Sarah, I appreciate the input the thoughts.
50:27
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm not thrilled to hear the things probably aren't going to get any better because I'm not happy where we are, but we'll see where we go.
50:33
[SPEAKER_06]: Sarah, you step by appreciate the time.
50:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
50:36
[SPEAKER_06]: Want to hear your thoughts?
50:38
[SPEAKER_06]: You've got any hope for the next six months?
50:40
[SPEAKER_06]: You're looking for more of the same to get us better results and what's that definition about insanity?
50:46
[SPEAKER_06]: I want to hear your thoughts, though, Rick at theRicksmithshow.com, right back to Crump.
50:53
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
50:57
[SPEAKER_06]: This day in Labor History, the year was 1894, that was the day that federal troops pushed Kelly's industrial army out of Washington, D.C. and across the Potomac River.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The army was a group of unemployed men who had come to the nation's capital to protest government in action.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The country was in the grip of an economic depression.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The nation's agricultural regions in the
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[SPEAKER_06]: Times were hard for American workers and families.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The call had gone out across the nation for the unemployed to make their way to the doorstep of Congress.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The goal was to petition for public infrastructure projects to put people back to work.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Businessmen Jacob Coxy had organized a march of the unemployed from Ohio.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Charles T. Kelly and his group came from California.
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[SPEAKER_06]: After a while, the local residents decided the unemployed group had outstayed their welcome.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The islands provided lumber, so the industrial army could build flat boats and be on their way.
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[SPEAKER_06]: By the time Charles Kelly and his men made it to DC, Coke Sea had already been sentenced to 20 days in jail for trespassing on the capital long.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Yet, unemployed men from across the country kept coming into the nation's capital.
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[SPEAKER_06]: 1200 men arrived from different points across the country.
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[SPEAKER_06]: One of those in Kelly's group was a young author by the name of Jack London.
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[SPEAKER_06]: London wrote of his experience, quote, "...a cross the wild and willy west, clear from California.
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[SPEAKER_06]: General Kelly and his heroes captured trains, but they fell down when they crossed the Missouri, and went up against the defeat east.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The marchers protests earned no help from Congress.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Like what you hear, check out more at LaborHistoryInto.com.
53:05
[SPEAKER_06]: So I want to go back to some of the stuff we were talking about, but sorry, you step, because I got a bunch of emails from folks complaining about, you know, if you always talk about Union, you're a one-trick pony, you know, that kind of stuff.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And the standard, you do know, unions are never coming back.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And it'll look, if you learned from history, they never thought unions were ever going to exist.
53:31
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, they, the, the boss class, the wealth class thought they had everything pretty pretty well under control during the gilded edge.
53:40
[SPEAKER_06]: And mass suffering caused people to come together and this is why you've heard me say for, since election day 2024 that the only way forward, the only way out of all of this is for a massive massive struggle moment.
53:57
[SPEAKER_06]: for some kind of economic calamity, some kind of disaster, some kind of pain that all of us feel, you know, Trump starting potentially starting a mass conflict, you know, maybe the beginnings of World War III.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And I know, you know, Rick, you're being hyperbolic there.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe a little bit, but I've yet to meet anybody who thinks we're winning.
54:21
[SPEAKER_06]: in what's going on in Iran yeah we've caused some misery we've blown some stuff up yeah we've we've depleted our own munitions went with our military is is letting it leak out that maybe we're depleting things faster than we're making them and that there are stories of the white house pleading with manufacturers to speed up production that tells me that maybe it's even worse
54:47
[SPEAKER_06]: then we're being led to belief.
54:49
[SPEAKER_06]: And that maybe the guy who got us into this didn't even think about it.
54:53
[SPEAKER_06]: This was just shooting from the hip, a gut reaction.
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[SPEAKER_06]: You know, the things that hit the red hat crowd really like about it.
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[SPEAKER_06]: that he's, you know, he's one of us and sadly, too many of us are just playing stupid.
55:05
[SPEAKER_06]: And this is what we get into.
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[SPEAKER_06]: So when I get these emails from people who say, well, you know, we're never going to do those things to the past.
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[SPEAKER_06]: We're never going to raise taxes.
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[SPEAKER_06]: We're, it's all, it's all an exercise in futility.
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[SPEAKER_06]: You're wasting your time and going, maybe.
55:18
[SPEAKER_06]: But I also believe it's the ideas that are lying around when crisis happens.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And this is what the right has understood for a very, very long time.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And you go back to 1996, I believe it was the project for a new American centuries report that said in order to get our conservative policies pushed through, we need a modern day Pearl Harbor.
55:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, because they understand the same thing that it's in those times of crisis, it's the ideas that are lying around that people grasp for and the right had spent decades and billions and billions of dollars.
56:05
[SPEAKER_06]: and it was it was the ideas that were laying around and they to their credit given credit they they they they saw the play they had the plan they did their their their their best and we're not living in a time of diminished ability to put food on the table a lower standard of living low less opportunities for our children but a billionaire class second to none
56:29
[SPEAKER_06]: And now a control structure that, um, I remember before the 24 election my red hats complaining that you'll Joe Biden's going to bring social credit scores, and now we see flock cameras everywhere, now we see all of this, this digital surveillance everywhere.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Now, we're easy.
56:48
[SPEAKER_06]: You're still here in the, here in the same message.
56:50
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have to worry about it.
56:55
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm a believer in people coming
56:59
[SPEAKER_06]: and labor unions are a part of people coming together and being empowered as a group to fight for a common interest.
57:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And that common interest is a much bigger slice of the economic pie that their labor creates.
57:13
[SPEAKER_06]: And look, you know, I
57:14
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, I've seen these graphs before and I brought it up to Sarah and you step you know the reality is is we know that productivity gains have gone through the roof where wages have gone flat and in some cases even declined you compare the productivity with hourly wages and adjusted for with the consumer price index and look.
57:36
[SPEAKER_06]: productivity goes up 100% wages actually go down 7%.
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[SPEAKER_06]: That is the heritage foundations piece.
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[SPEAKER_06]: That isn't something hippy liberal group.
57:46
[SPEAKER_06]: And then you look at the American enterprise as a piece that has the same alligator jaws of productivity going through the roof and wages for you and me for working people basically deadlocked.
57:59
[SPEAKER_06]: But the other part of it is you go back before these graphs started.
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[SPEAKER_06]: From the end of World War II up until the middle of 70s, productivity and wage growth walked hand in hand.
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[SPEAKER_06]: Because labor was at its most power.
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[SPEAKER_06]: between the end of World War II and the middle sixties before Tath Hartley really took effect and really began to restrain labor.
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[SPEAKER_06]: And before corporate America figured out how to not abide themselves enough politicians and in passing of laws for right to work states and pit people against it, do what the wealth class does masterfully.
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[SPEAKER_06]: So here we are.
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[SPEAKER_06]: We're in a moment where again,
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[SPEAKER_06]: the amount of wealth going to working people, declining and stagnant.
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[SPEAKER_06]: The amount of productivity going into the hands of our billionaires, oh, I'm yielded edge, yielded age numbers.
58:57
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm told the one tool that I know fixes that.
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[SPEAKER_06]: the ability to join in foreign unions, the ability of working people to come together and do the only thing that they have the ability to do and that's fold their arms and march their feet that that is antiquated and it's never going to happen and sorry I don't I choose not to believe that because well history has shown us otherwise and it may be different different boots maybe different streets
59:25
[SPEAKER_06]: Maybe different tools, the same organizing.
59:28
[SPEAKER_06]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
59:30
[SPEAKER_06]: Email me, Rick, at theRickSmithShow.com.
59:32
[SPEAKER_06]: Miss any portion of the program, grab the podcast, and as always, thanks so much for being here.
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[SPEAKER_06]: We'll see you back here next time.
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[SPEAKER_05]: Until next time, this has been The Rick Smith Show.
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[SPEAKER_05]: We're working people, come to talk.