Raging Moderates: How Rage Bait Runs Our Economy

What It Covers

Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov examine Trump's immigration crackdown including judge firings, debate whether $140,000 represents a new poverty line in America, and discuss Oxford's word of the year: rage bait.

Key Questions Answered

• •Immigration judge purge: Trump administration fired eight New York immigration judges as part of nationwide removal of nearly 100 judges, targeting those deemed lenient while creating court backlogs and paralyzing legitimate immigration cases including student visas and asylum hearings.
• •Poverty line calculation flaw: Official US poverty line uses food costs multiplied by three, but food dropped from 33% to 13% of household spending. Adjusting the multiplier to 7.7 reflects actual costs, suggesting $82,000 represents a more accurate poverty threshold than the current $32,000.
• •Childcare cost crisis: Full-time documented childcare in major cities now costs $150,000 annually, while 11% of average household income goes to childcare nationally. New Mexico's universal childcare rollout demonstrates government-scale solutions can reduce costs through efficiency and broader access.
• •Social media rage economics: US media headlines containing anger increased 104% from 2000 to 2019. Each additional negative word in headlines boosts click-through rates by two percentage points, as platforms profit from engineered outrage that damages mental health and political discourse.