Sixteen Proposals for Effective Solutions in '16 - Salvatore Babones on Reality Asserts Itself
*Contentious at many points and also interesting interview.. the interviewer is well versed
in US/World politics.
On Reality Asserts Itself, Mr. Babones, author of "Sixteen for '16", says while he grew up in a right-wing, conservative working-class family, social science brought him to progressive public policy conclusions
June 23, 2015
Transcript: Bio
Dr.Salvatore Babones is the author or editor of eight books and more than two dozen academic research articles. His academic research focuses on income inequality, economic development, and statistical methods for comparative social science research. He writes a weekly column for the Inequality.org website and contributes to progressive websites and newsletters across America.
Sixteen Proposals for Effective Solutions in '16 - Salvatore Babones on Reality Asserts Itself (1/4)PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay. This is Reality Asserts Itself.
At The Real News, as you know, we're particularly interested in solutions, not just critiquing what there is, but what should people demand, and if you actually had a progressive government, if you actually had a government that was interested in governing in the interests of the majority of people, well, what would it actually do?
Well, there's a new book out which tries to deal with all of this. It's called Sixteen for '16, that is, 16 proposals: if someone running for president in the 2016 election actually wanted to solve the problems with effective public policy in the interest of the majority of people, well, here's 16 things they could actually run on and maybe do.
Now joining us in the studio is its author, Salvatore Babones. Salvatore Babones is an associate professor in sociology and social policy at the University of Sydney and an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. He holds both a master's degree in statistics and a PhD in sociology from the Johns Hopkins University. Before moving to Australia in 2008--'cause he is an American--he worked in financial risk management and taught sociology and statistics at several universities in the United States.
Thanks for joining us.
SALVATORE BABONES, ASSOC. PROF. SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL POLICY, UNIV. OF SYDNEY: Thanks for having me on.
JAY: And once again, latest book is Sixteen for '16: A Progressive Agenda for a Better America.
BABONES: That's right.
JAY: Okay. So you begin the book with a little biographical sketch, and you kind of repeat about four or five times how conservative you are.
BABONES: I am.
JAY: What's so conservative about you? This is not a very conservative agenda for America.
BABONES: I think it is a very conservative agenda for America.
JAY: Well, how do you define conservative?
BABONES: Well, I think the very bedrock definition of a conservative is someone who wants to turn back the clock. And I think many of our best social policies were put in place in the 1930s and in the 1960s. That's the last century. So if we want to go back to the last century to get good social policy, in a lot of ways that's a conservative agenda.
JAY: That's kind of parsing it, 'cause, I mean, this is 1960s at a time there's a mass movement, a big civil rights movement, enormous demands on the system.
BABONES: Sure. Sure. Look, I'll give you more serious answer, which is that I want an agenda that will give Americans the opportunity to earn their own way in the world, to have good jobs, to make good money, to get themselves off of reliance on government. Now, that's a conservative program. I don't want to--I'm not proposing in this book a series of government programs that will solve the problems of the poor. I am proposing a series of policies that will bring people out of poverty.
JAY: But you are proposing a big, massive government jobs program. That's a very big government policy. I mean, that's--I think you're talking about five, six million government jobs that would then trigger another four or five million, but a big public works program.
BABONES: Sure. But I want policies that we know will work. When I say I'm conservative, I mean I don't believe in taking big chances on policies that have never been tested. I mean we should do things that we can say with, I think, absolute confidence that would do what we want them to do.
JAY: But you're not conservative in the way the word gets used normally, which is, government, get out of the way, although that isn't what they really mean, 'cause most people that consider themselves conservative--not libertarians, who I think are an exception to what I'm about to say--are for big government as long as it's big military. They're just not for big government if it comes to any kind of social safety net or that sort of thing. But in the traditional way we use the word--well, let's go back a bit.
BABONES: Sure.
JAY: When you grow up, what's the kind of politics your household?
BABONES: My mother is a Christian conservative high school math teacher. My father was a Teamster.
in full: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14086
= new reply since forum marked as read
