I have two requests to ask of DAW, the first one being that there was a statement early in the broadcast that the majority if the green houses gasses that are being released into the atmosphere are from the transportation sector. There is a documentary called Cowspiracy that has data suggesting that animal agriculture contributes to a greater amount of green house gas admissions, something like 51 % if i remember correctly. I was hoping you might talk about how the animal agricultural businesses effect the economy and the lives of people. My second request is that you put links to pertinent information that is discussed in this podcast, so that listeners can advance their understanding of the subject matter. Thanks for hosting this show, I’ve been trying on a regular basis to bring in new listeners and supporters!

Loved the interview with Rob Robinson… I just so happened to be back at college for the past fours years studying Human Services (Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne) and have worked in a couple of different homeless shelters. I know that wages are not enough for people to survive and indeed about 25-30% of the folks that come into the homeless shelter are for reasons that involve economics only and affordability of housing. No mental or substance abuse problems… and of course we treat them with a big dose of Jesus Christ even though they may not have any spiritual problem whatsoever. That is primary nature of our current homeless shelters… I see housing as the number one problem in America economically because the costs bounce back after recessions (due to investors buying them up at a bargain) and then that house is then too much money… or has inflated beyond the means of the consumer at their non-growing wage. Low cost housing or subsidized housing has a multi-year waiting list and in the small county here (about 300,000 people) we have well beyond 5,000 people on that list and the waiting could be up to 18 months. Something has to give eventually… either wages go up (so that housing is affordable) or another crash happens that permanently reduces the cost of housing… (and a few other things like medical care!) this seems to be the tug of war with our current malaise.

I too think the world of college sports needs to be analyzed. As a casual football fan, it doesn’t surprise me in the least what the NFL does considering it’s a consortium of capitalistic businesses. But college football, namely the NCAA, insults everyone’s intelligence by declaring that it is an amateur sport in spirit when it’s pulling in the cash. For the most egregious example, one only needs to look just a few short years ago (2009) at the Fiesta Bowl scandal involving its now former CEO John Junker, when the bowl broke state and federal laws by “encouraging” employees to make campaign contributions to politicians friendly to the bowl, with those contributions reimbursed back to the employees. This guy spent millions of dollars over the prior years currying favor from elected officials, Junker himself had a salary of $600,000 per year for essentially doing nothing. While Junker was subsequently fired, the entire college football postseason system is corrupt as anything and those other bowls (Orange, Sugar, Rose) were never investigated. Amateur sport, right.

On the Chobani story of its founder giving stocks to employees, that is great. Would love for Professor Wolff to have this guy on the show. It reminded me of when I worked over 20 years ago at MCI, now-defunct long-distance phone company where I worked before WorldCom bought them out and eventually destroyed MCI and the rest of the American economy. I can’t remember the specifics, but MCI was coined as being “employee-owned” because employees could by shares of company stock, I think for a reduced price (can’t remember that last part). The reason I was told for that was having employees owning company stock was a hedge against hostile takeover by another corporation (presumably AT&T who was by far the big dog in that market even back then). So that was one reason for offering employees stock company stock, maybe this guy is wanting to keep Yoplait or whoever from taking over Chobani.

Enjoyed Rob Robinson’s interview. I enjoyed listening to his take on things and hope Professor Wolff has him on again.