Today’s public policy debates consist primarily of people conversing within their own echo chambers while tuning out disagreement. To make progress on contentious issues, we need to better understand opposing perspectives, clarify points of agreement and disagreement, and collaborate on finding a constructive path forward. American Compass has no shortage of critics, so we figured, let’s have them on a show.
Critics Corner brings together those who disagree—whether on fundamental questions or specific policies—in the spirit of American Compass’s commitment to combining intellectual combat with personal civility. Neither debate nor interview, it’s a conversation between people eager to identify the source of their disagreements and the potential for common ground.
On this episode, Michael Strain joins Oren in the Critics Corner to discuss what he calls “grievance-onomics,” the reasons we should or should not have confidence in corporations pursuing their own profits will act in ways that benefit the American people, and policy implications on issues ranging from trade and investment to education and immigration. Michael is the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.