Something happened to working-class America.

Factories closed.

Union jobs disappeared.

Communities hollowed out.

The anger that followed was real.

But what if somebody showed up and handed people the wrong suspect?

In Part 3 of How Did We Get Here?, Nate follows the thread through wealth inequality, union decline, deregulation, and the propaganda playbook Edward Bernays helped build nearly a century ago.

The grievance is real.

The target is wrong.

The question is: who benefits when we confuse the two?

How Did We Get Here? - Part 3: The Harvest

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AJN encourages listeners to verify information independently.

Primary sources used for this episode are listed below.

The goal of Average Joe Nerdcast is not to tell you what to think. The goal is to encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and independent verification.

If you believe something in this episode is incorrect, check the sources, review the evidence yourself, and come to your own conclusions.

Don't outsource your thinking to me.

I don't want that responsibility.

CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio

• Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Executive Compensation Research

Wealth Distribution Data

• Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts (DFA)

Union Membership Statistics

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
• AFL-CIO Historical Membership Data

PATCO Strike (1981)

• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
• U.S. Department of Labor Historical Records

Savings & Loan Crisis

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Historical Review

Enron Collapse

• U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
• SEC Historical Case Files

2008 Financial Crisis

• Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) Final Report
• Federal Reserve Historical Resources

Edward Bernays

• Propaganda (1928)
• The Engineering of Consent (1947)

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