Scholars’ Circle – Election issues of Tariff on imports and Childcare affecting Economy and Workforce – October 20, 2024

The Scholars' Circle Interviews

“the most beautiful word in the English language is tariff.” That is a direct quote from former President and current Republican candidate for President Donald Trump. On most issues that involve funding, when the former President is asked how he intends to pay for a proposal, his response is to increase tariffs. In 2018 the US initiated a round a tariffs and a trade war with China. And after his election in 2020, President Biden has left most of the tariffs in place and increased tariffs in other areas. So what are tariffs and what are their impact on the US economy? Who pays them? What is their effect on the one issue that most Americans use to define economic health—inflation. And what do the two candidates propose as the future of US tariff policy following the 2024 elections. [ dur: 38mins. ]

• Iva Bozovic She is Associate Teaching Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. She is co-author of “Scaffolding: Using formal contracts to support informal relations in support of innovation.”
• Lui Hebron, formerly of California State University and currently an academic coach at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. He is the editor of Asian Security in the Age of Globalization.

For many Americans, the cost of child care is a significant challenge to parents returning to the job market. And this has a particular importance to working women, who are traditionally expected to be the children’s primary care giver. According to the US Census Bureau child care prices for a single child ranged from $4,810 a year for school-age home-based care in small counties to $15,417 for infant center-based care in very large counties. When adjusted for inflation, this equals between $5,357 and $17,171 in 2022 dollars. These price ranges were equivalent to between 8% and 19.3% of median family income per child in paid care. And while the number is increasingly, only 13% of American corporations offer onsite child care. What can be done to control the cost of child care? What does this increased cost mean for women’s ability to work? And what should the US government do to increase access to child care across the nation? [ dur: 20mins. ]

• Elizabeth Palley. She is Professor of Social Work at Adelphi University. She is co-author of In Our Hands, The Struggle for US Child Care Policy.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker and Sudd Dongre.