Ginni Rometty Promo Clip
Clip: Season 6 Episode 4 | 2m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
Ginni Rometty explains her view that democracy hinges on people having brighter futures.
Ginni Rometty explains her view that democracy hinges on people having brighter futures. She says we are in an especially critical moment because the middle class has dissipated and wages are split among the very high and the very low. She also highlights the dividing line drawn in the professional world by college degrees.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
Ginni Rometty Promo Clip
Clip: Season 6 Episode 4 | 2m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
Ginni Rometty explains her view that democracy hinges on people having brighter futures. She says we are in an especially critical moment because the middle class has dissipated and wages are split among the very high and the very low. She also highlights the dividing line drawn in the professional world by college degrees.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Honestly, I believe democracy hinges on this topic.
Because democracy can be sustained when people believe they have a better future in front of them.
And right now the data would show you that that's not what people believe.
The whole middle class of our country has really been wiped out.
I did some work with MIT, or they did the work, I participated on the work of the future.
And this barbell effect that there are a lot of jobs that are higher paying that have emerged, but a lot more lower paying.
And that middle, that really sustained, in my mind, democracy, and the middle class, and the American dream, it's been hollowed out.
And the reason, you might look over time and go, "Well, wait, wait, wait.
Productivity's up 66%.
Wages and aggregate up a lot too."
But the median wage is only up nine percent, which means the number that most people see over this long period of time.
- Right.
- And that just tells you that no, the workforce has gone in two different directions.
And they're separated by this college degree barrier.
And so that's why I think the idea that if more people could have a better future, to me, that is what democracy hinges on.
Which is why I say, "Well, this is a very practical thing that we can do to bring more people into the workforce and into better paying jobs that could sustain a family of four."
After George Floyd's murder and the group of us came together, we said, "Okay.
To hire, we came up with an organization, a nonprofit.
OneTen means one million Black Americans into family-sustaining jobs.
Not just any job, over the next 10 years."
And sort of clinically, it's working on supply and demand.
On one side, we have to go work with all of the companies in this country and say to them, "Please adopt a skills-first paradigm."
And it does take the boss to agree because there's lots of other sort of unconscious bias about this topic and even people to say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Do you mean a two class world here?
Where some of you can have a college degree and the rest of us don't need it and we're not good enough?"
And we're like, "No.
Where you start should not determine where you end."
Support for PBS provided by: