By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
Click here to receive the Daily Digest via email.
The Breakdown of Democracy (Real News Network)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Rob Johnson says that to fix our democratic system, corporations need to be taken out of the game. Substantial reforms will be needed to limit their power in elections.
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones (NYT)
Annie Lowrey looks at a new report from the National Employment Law Project, which finds that the recovery essentially replaced good jobs with bad ones. That's one incentive for the push for a minimum wage increase.
Northwestern University Football Players Vote on Unionization (MSNBC)
The vote will remain sealed until the National Labor Relations Board decides on the university's appeal, reports Ned Resnikoff, but that doesn't change the symbolic power of this first for college athletes.
New York City Now Protects Interns Against Sexual Harassment—but With One Major Loophole (The Nation)
By restricting its definition of an unpaid intern to the Labor Department's legal guidelines, Michelle Chen says New York's City Council has allowed some vulnerable workers to remain unprotected.
Thomas Piketty is a Rock-Star Economist – Can He Re-write the American Dream? (The Guardian)
Heidi Moore praises Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, and considers whether his ideas for addressing inequality can move beyond the pundit class and win over regular people.
Lawrence Lessig Has a “Moonshot” Plan to Halt Our Slide Toward Plutocracy (Bill Moyers)
Joshua Holland speaks to Lessig about why so many Americans are resigned to the current state of campaign finance, and how a Super PAC to end all Super PACs could work.
Your Political Leaders Are Unsurprisingly Terrible at Empathizing with Your Salary (The Wire)
Philip Bump notes just how disconnected some politicians are when they talk about income and class issues. Case in point: those who claim they're underpaid while earning more than twice their constitutents' median income.