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We make today make sense. It is Friday, July the 19th. You made it through what a week? Yeah, what a week. Happy Friday. I made me Scott, Infra Kai, Rizdal. Thanks for joining us on the podcast and on the YouTube live stream. It is time for our weekly Happy Hour episode economics on tap. I think we earned it. Yes, we're going to do some news. We're going to do a break. We're going to play a game. Lots of fun. What are you drinking?
What are you drinking? We're coming to the company back. We're going to do speakers on at our house next time, but in the next time, you go to the end of the class, you will see what happens next. inspires me to step it up on a Friday because she always has such today not with standing such interesting. I shouldn't have gone in the trouble. No you should have because now we have at least one good drink in the in the show today so you know you have to balance it out. It's like when I come with an
elaborate cocktail and Kai's drinking water you know. Yeah I kind of feel that today. But we got to drink together last night so it's still kept true in person. Yes we had a mid-Atlantic happy hour and or dinner and
you know doing all the things but let's do some news. What you got Amy? Yeah okay well I heard you actually talk about this on the marketplace evening show so no surprise to you but the Biden administration announced today a plan to phase out the federal government's purchases of single use plastics which is a big deal because and I didn't know this until today the federal government is
the single biggest buyer of consumer goods on the planet. That's according to the New York Times which is kind of amazing so it's using its purchasing power because they're the largest employers well. Right it's a massive bureaucracy and buys a lot of stuff so the Biden administration wants to use that purchasing power to reduce demand globally for disposable plastic and to
stimulate the market for good substitutes. So we've talked on this show about some of the problems with plastic you know it's clogging the oceans filling up landfills when it breaks down it releases micro plastics that end up in the
bodies of animals and humans. Its production creates carbon pollution that's contributing to the climate crisis and those forever chemicals known as PFAS which have been linked to a whole range of potential health risks so that is huge and also as we've been learning a lot of the plastic we think we're recycling when we put it in our bins at home isn't actually getting recycled. So in fact according to the New York Times only about 9% of the plastic
collected by municipal waste collection programs gets recycled 9%. So if the world's biggest buyer stops buying single-use plastic you know it could make a difference the plan is to phase out that plastic in food events and packaging by 2037 and then I'm sorry 2027 for them and then all other use by
2035. The administration also says it's planning regulations on plastic manufacturing but of course all of this really depends on who wins the election because another Trump president is likely to roll back a lot of environmental and climate rules and I can't imagine taking too kindly to this move. So TBD. I wonder how many sort of plastics manufacturers are freaking out about this right now because that's a that's a
big deal and it's a huge deal. Yeah. Because you know government contracting is such a huge industry and and the time it's going to take to wind down those contracts. You have to imagine that there's a bunch of folks getting notifications like hey when your contract is up we will not be buying from you again and that is going to be a thing. Man I really do hope that some good alternatives come about though because I think that's been one of the struggles is for people
who would like to produce their plastic use. There just aren't a lot of really easy or convenient or pleasant to use alternatives and so you know I hope that this could lead to some innovation. Right but yeah I know the issues with innovation is scale you know and if you can get the government contract for your you know bio degradable bamboo fork that replaces a plastic fork then you know you can lower your costs for other consumers you know in in the private
sector. But yeah it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I have two bits of news. One is this very interesting article I saw in Vox headline it's time to stop arguing over the population slowdown and start adapting to it and this is based on UN demographers now expect the number of people on the planet to peak at a bit under 10.3 billion in 2084 which is two years earlier than the UN when it's predicting peak population and considerably earlier than forecast
from just a few years before. Now it's a lot of people still but there is globally a downward trend in population and there's an aging population in many parts of the world and so this article goes and spells out a lot of the different ways that this is going to show up in the world and in the global economy within terms of immigration and here's an interesting chunk to pull out even while population growth in the world as a whole slows down and eventually
reverses some countries with younger populations and relatively higher fertility rates chiefly in sub-Saharan Africa will see massive growth growth. The result is that by the end of the century the makeup of the world will look very different Nigeria is projected to come to become the world's second most populous country after India with a population that will more than triple to over 700 million Pakistan's population is expected to increase by more than
a hundred million. The Democratic Republic of Congo which ranks 15th and world population now is forecast to reach seventh place with 388 million people more than the US has today and that is also going to matter for you know what you cover climate change because the parts of the world that are going to see the most population growth are some of the parts of the world that are the most
vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Anyway super interesting article with a lot of sort of predictions about what's coming down the road and what that's going to mean for politics and the economy so highly recommend. Yeah did you have anything on that before I move on to the other story? Well I have I have
thoughts I'm go for it. That's just it's fascinating and I think the economic ramifications are so interesting there's been so much talk of whether one solution to the climate crisis is degrowth you know the idea that we could not rely on economic growth in order to continue to increase prosperity around the globe and so when the population slows down and you don't have as many young people entering the workforce as kind of like forced degrowth in a way although
you know I'm sure productivity gains that we can't even imagine will happen with technology but I just think it's that's super interesting I'll definitely read that article and maybe we can do a deep dive on it at some point.
Hmm about population decline yeah yeah the other story is one I spotted in Reuters the other day obviously there's so much rumors and gossiping and I don't know how even to describe what's happening in this town around what President Biden is going to do and whether or not he's going to step down and there are plenty of other folks to be talking about that but what we care about is what happens to his money obviously we care about more things than that but
anyway article and Reuters about what happens to the campaign money that Biden has which has been kind of an ongoing question the answer is we don't exactly know here's a section of it experts on campaign finance law disagree on how readily the money could change hands someone from the
campaign legal center said that there are two scenarios in which control of Biden's money could be seamlessly transferred to a new candidate if that candidate were vice president Kamala Harris or if Harris became the running mate of a new candidate as Biden's current running mate Harris's name appears alongside Biden's on the campaign's registration document if she remains on the ticket as either presidential or vice presidential candidate the new
ticket would maintain access to all the funds however some legal and there's some other folks who say legal interpretations might not sanction a Harris ticket taking control the money of Biden were to drop out and before he's formally nominated by his party to appear on the ballot and so because if he does it before he's officially on the ballot that could be a thing Republicans have already said if they try to switch up the ballot there's going to be
legal challenges so yeah it would be a lot of yeah so there's a lot of interesting scenarios that they play out here if you're interested in the money question in all of this so yeah that's what I got yeah absolutely it's fascinating especially since many donors have said they're going to stop giving to the campaign it's raised questions about what happens to the money that's already been given yeah all right well that's it for the news we're gonna take a quick break and when we
come back we'll play around a half full half empty we'll be right back hey everyone it's Rima Grace host of this is uncomfortable here to let you all know about our summer book club every other week we're gonna recommend a book that our team loves that gets at some uncomfortable topic around money class our relationship to work will feature a wide range of rucks including classics like EM4 stars a passage to India page turning novels like Naomi Alderman's
the future and personal finance books like Paco D'Lion's Finance for the people join this is Uncomfortable's book club by signing up for our newsletter be sure to sign up today at Marketplace.org slash book club I love that you bounce to the music with me kind of a bounce how can you not exactly it's so catchy anyway we are back it's time to play half full half empty hosted by the one the only the amazing Drew just add Drew take it away it's great to be here
right are you half full or have empty on a blue screen of death I was so glad to hear you use that term today can really in the show well because most people know what that looks like and a lot more people know what it looks like now after the crowd strike situation obviously as has been everywhere in the news this you know shut down airlines and businesses and cost all manner of trouble I am obviously half empty on people having to deal with this mess but I
will say that as a Mac user at home I did not have to deal with it and through whatever technological you know magicians we have here at Marketplace it seemed like our systems were all right today for the most part so I'm half empty of course on the the disaster that affected people gosh those airport lines I just felt such a paying for those folks but the blue screen of death a long time ago I had a boyfriend who worked in the internet the nascent internet space and
and he played a prank on his company by making all of the computers have a blue screen to freak them all out and it was like as they were they had total panic yeah so I'm I'm half full on pranks sadly today it was not a prank all right what's the next one drew okay the parent company of red box the DVD vending machines is liquidating are you have full or half empty oh have you ever used one of those no I am I'm half but I'm still half empty because I am
nostalgic about certain technology and a friend and I were just talking about what how different it is to scan through the television trying to find a movie to watch then it was to go physically to a store and browse back in the days of video stores with VHS tapes and then DVDs browse the what was in stock and what was available it's kind of like going shopping at the grocery store you don't know what you want until you see it and so I'm just a little sad because it's
just another one bites the dust you know but I have to say by the time red box was really a thing I I wasn't I didn't need it yeah I I don't really have strong feelings about red box I never used it but you know I'm gonna say half empty because it it served a smallish market obviously or they'd still be in business but you know there's probably folks who don't have streaming services who probably still like to using it and I also am kind of bummed about moving
away from owning anything like there's so few places to like at this point own the things that you enjoy like movies and music you know I was going back and I found a mixed tape that somebody had made me when I was in high school I still have and I can like I own it and I can listen to it whenever I want to but now that everything is streaming there's so much content that you sort of maintain your access to by the grace of whatever company you know actually
owns it and they get to decide how long you keep it and and what you can do with it so anyway well cassette tapes are making a comeback so it's just a matter of time before DVDs get popular with the youth as well all right what's next okay this fall will be the 50th anniversary of the cartoon character hello kitty this week people online were shocked to learn that she is not a cat are you half full or half empty what so I saw this in passing would they say
that she was like a third grader or something like this she's a little girl born and raised in the suburbs of London she has a pet cat of her own and that's just a costume I just don't I'm simultaneously confused and traumatized I just so half empty then I feel like I need to get my 10 year old in here to be like what I'm sorry I forgot about the game I'm I'm like yeah half empty I'm confused and so is everybody the chat she was a cute by the way cat yeah I'm not
sure if she's wearing a mask or what's going on with that yeah no sounds like we need to do an investigation here yeah oh man but I've been in Hello Kitty fans since I was a little kid and and my daughter is now super into Hello Kitty and and I you know so I feel like I've been living a lie all this time it was never my thing but you know it's cute it is cute yes all right what's next this week target stores have stopped accepting paper checks are you half full or half empty I'm letting you go
I'm gonna say half full because I am just envisioning the hassle that it means for some cashier in target to deal with the check compared to other ways of payments however I'm a little nostalgic for checks and that I still have a
checkbook I still use checks on occasion and I just remember being in middle school and we had to bring like a voided old checkbook from our parents because we actually had a class one day on how to fill out checks like they taught us how to fill out checks and how to like balance a checkbook it was
like a thing that we did in middle school I yeah I remember practicing my signature over and over and over again because I was so excited to write my first check yeah I mean I guess I'm half empty because I do I like think about the folks for whom that may be still the way they pay but I'm sure that number is very small now but yeah I mean gosh you're just hitting us with all this like change the style change you're gonna make us be like high and get off my
lawn stuff I know I'm feeling rather get off my lawn right now I'm hit by swear I think what I use checks where I use it to pay for like parking sometimes for my building and sometimes if I want to like send money to like a family member or
something but mostly I use Venmo yeah I don't know public not like JD Vance who left his Venmo public was his oh no yeah why did a whole article did Biden to that I feel like I remember a story early in the Biden administration or maybe when he was still running when his contacts were public
turn those off people no one wants to see what you're what you're well I guess people do want to see what you're buying but no one needs to yeah right all right it was the time for the poll it is all right folks in the chat get ready to vote what we got all right with the presidential debate a couple weeks ago the assassination attempt and the RNC are you half full or half empty on talking politics in the workplace yeah especially have to highly recommend
an interview that our colleague David Broncoccio did with the head of the Society for Human Resource Management on Monday about politics in the workplace and civility in the workplace in particular and oh man I feel like part of the reason that we have so much political polarization is that for generations it's been considered bad manners to talk politics bad manners to talk religion and so so many of us don't even have like the toolkit of how to talk
to other people across differences right we just continue to self isolate in our own you know tribes or camps or whatever and I just I don't know I feel like if we don't talk about these issues in different spaces how are we ever going to learn to talk to each other about these things
interesting notes coming in on the chat a lot of really interesting votes I can't wait to hear how the what the majority is but some good insights I think yeah let's see so we is this I forgot we don't share until the poll close we don't share and we feel yeah let's see Cheryl says that she works for herself at home but a steering clear of all political talk these days I'm your Huckleberry says so empty I already recycled the container that's good I
hope they actually recycle it Robert says all call back talking about it that's why people feel they can be so horrible let's see everyone wants to expat Mike says everyone wants to talk about it my workplace since I'm the only American in my company in Japan I'm so sorry oh wow yeah so I want to know you think yikes yikes okay so we have closed the poll half empty 79% half full 20% what do you think Amy wow is that a record no no we had one a couple
weeks ago it was like one person voted the other way yeah I would say overall I'm half empty just because you know it's easy to sort of assume that other folks feel the same way and and you could inadvertently really offend someone or you know cause some strife in the workplace but I do think that
acknowledging the challenge of these times is important I just we had a meeting earlier this week you know we have a bunch of young producers and I it was after the assassination attempt and I I just felt like I needed to acknowledge
how people might be feeling and without really talking about opinions just recognize that this is a really hard time for a lot of people it's a very scary time for a lot of people and you know just to kind of acknowledge the elephant in the room without fanning the flames so yeah how about you
can I earnest Bellamy makes a good point in the chat saying that you know earnest is in local government and it's against ethics rules to talk politics like there are some spaces where you really cannot talk politics at work yeah I saw someone posting from HR and she said or they said definitely empty like do not do this I imagine for the HR folks that's a hard no Kevin Flanagan says I have a few co-workers who have said things in the realm of politics that make me
question their judgment even for technical things interesting interesting yeah yeah um Paul and Minnesota I'm an election judge and I appreciate how folks have been saying dial it all down because volunteers are needed to keep this all working uh wow yeah I think um I'm gonna have to say
half full on talking politics at work when you can if you can do it with respect you know if you feel like you've developed a toolkit to be able to do it and you're with colleagues who have that toolkit we got to start having these conversations or it's not gonna get any better but it's it's a tough one that's a tough one man you're ending us on a downer drew cheese I blame you I already revealed that she wasn't a cat so I mean yeah this is really trying to ruin
our Friday drew thanks let's be done oh boy well that is it for us today thank you everybody for joining in especially those who tuned into the live stream we are gonna be back on Monday until then send us your questions comments suggestions we are at 508 you be smart or you can email us at make me smart at marketplace dot org popping along make me smart as produced by Courtney Burke Seeker today's episode was engineered by Charlton Thorpe the team behind our Friday game is
Emily McHughn Jamilla Huxable and Antoinette Brock Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer Bridget Bodner is our director of podcasts and Francesca Levy is the executive director of digital and on demand hey everyone it's Rima Grace host of this is uncomfortable here to let you
all know about our summer book club every other week we're gonna recommend a book that our team loves that gets at some uncomfortable topic around money class our relationship to work will feature a wide range of wrecks including classics like Ian Forester's a passage to India page
turning novels like Naomi Alderman's the future and personal finance books like Paco D'Lion's Finance for the People join this is Uncomfortable's book club by signing up for our newsletter be sure to sign up today at Marketplace.org slash book club