Olivia: Jackson, what if I told you the most expensive thing in America isn't healthcare, housing, or even our national debt? It’s a single, pervasive idea. An idea that quietly costs our economy trillions, and it’s the belief that for one person to win, another has to lose. Jackson: Okay, you have my full attention. That sounds like the premise of every reality TV show ever made, but for an entire country. What is this idea? And how can an idea cost trillions? Olivia: It’s a fantastic question, and it’s the central mystery at the heart of a book that I think is one of the most important of the last decade: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. Jackson: Ah, Heather McGhee. I know her work. She was the president of the progressive think tank Demos for years, right? Always deep in the weeds of economic policy. Olivia: Exactly. And that’s what makes her perspective so powerful. She spent her career staring at charts and data, trying to figure out why America, the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, can't seem to have nice things—like universal healthcare, well-funded schools, or modern infrastructure. The data alone didn't add up. So she left her job and went on a journey across the country to find the answer. Jackson: A road trip to solve economic inequality. I love it. So what did she find out there? What’s this massively expensive idea? Olivia: She found that the answer wasn't in the economic models. It was in our history. The idea is what she calls the "zero-sum paradigm." Specifically, the racially-coded belief, baked into America’s foundation, that progress for people of color must come at the expense of white people. And she argues this single lie is the root cause of so much of our collective dysfunction.

Jackson: A zero-sum game. That feels very familiar. You hear it in political rhetoric all the time. But how does that actually drain trillions from the economy? That feels like a huge leap. Olivia: It is, and she makes the case with one of the most powerful and frankly, heartbreaking, metaphors I've ever read. It’s the story of America’s public swimming pools. Jackson: Swimming pools? How do they explain the economy? Olivia: In the 1930s and 40s, the government went on a building spree, creating these incredible, grand public pools. They were like cathedrals of community life—massive, ornate, and seen as the great social equalizers. A place where everyone, rich and poor, could come together. Jackson: Sounds idyllic. A symbol of the American dream. Olivia: It was, with one massive exception. These public goods were almost exclusively for white people. When the Civil Rights movement gained steam in the 50s and 60s, and courts began ordering pools to integrate, towns across the country were faced with a choice. Jackson: Let me guess: share the pools or… what? Olivia: Or drain them. And that’s exactly what thousands of them did. In Montgomery, Alabama, for instance, the city didn't just close the Oak Park pool. They drained it, filled it with dirt, and paved it over with grass. They literally destroyed a beautiful public asset that everyone enjoyed, just to avoid sharing it with their Black neighbors. Jackson: Wow. That is… profoundly self-destructive. They chose to have nothing rather than share something. It’s the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Olivia: Precisely. And McGhee calls this "drained-pool politics." The zero-sum logic was so powerful that having a beautiful, free public good was less important than maintaining the racial hierarchy. The result? The white kids couldn't swim anymore either. Everyone lost. The pool of public benefits was drained for all. Jackson: Okay, I see the metaphor now, and it’s chilling. But that was decades ago. How does that connect to the economy today? Surely we're not still literally draining pools. Olivia: We're not, but McGhee argues we're doing it metaphorically all the time. Think about public education. After Brown v. Board of Education, as schools began to integrate, public investment in them started to plummet. White flight to the suburbs accelerated, and with it went the tax base. The "pool" of public school funding was drained, and while it hurt students of color the most, it ultimately led to a weaker public education system for everyone. Jackson: And you see this pattern elsewhere? Olivia: Everywhere. She points to the decline of unions. They were once a powerful force for the middle class, but employers successfully used racial divisions—pitting white workers against Black workers—to break their solidarity and weaken them. The result? Stagnant wages for the entire working class for the last 40 years. Jackson: So the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008… was that another drained-pool moment? Olivia: It was the ultimate drained-pool moment. McGhee dedicates a whole chapter to this, calling it "Ignoring the Canary." Predatory, high-risk mortgages were designed for and tested on Black and brown communities first. These were the "canaries in the coal mine." For years, advocates were screaming that these financial products were toxic and were stripping wealth from these communities. Jackson: And they were ignored. Olivia: They were ignored. The regulators looked the other way because the damage was contained to communities that the powerful didn't value. But of course, a toxic product doesn't stay contained. The banks, seeing how profitable it was, started selling these junk loans to everyone, including millions of white families. And in 2008, the whole system collapsed. The pool of the global economy was drained. Everyone paid the price for the racism that allowed the problem to fester in the first place. Jackson: That’s a devastatingly clear picture. It reframes racism from a moral failing into a catastrophic system failure. A bug in the operating system that eventually crashes the whole computer. Olivia: That’s the core of her argument. The zero-sum story isn't just a lie; it's a profoundly expensive one that has left all of us, of all races, with less than we should have.

Jackson: This is all pretty bleak, Olivia. If this zero-sum thinking is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche, is there any way out? Does the book offer any hope, or are we just stuck with drained pools forever? Olivia: Absolutely. And this is where the book pivots from a devastating diagnosis to a genuinely inspiring prescription. After showing us how much the zero-sum story costs, McGhee introduces the solution: what she calls the "Solidarity Dividend." Jackson: The Solidarity Dividend. I like the sound of that. What is it, exactly? Olivia: It’s the quantifiable gains that can be unlocked when people choose to reject the zero-sum story and build cross-racial coalitions to fight for their shared interests. It’s the idea that we all do better when we all do better. And it’s not just a theory; she finds examples of it happening all over the country. Jackson: Okay, so give me the best example. Where is this dividend paying out? Olivia: The most powerful one is the Fight for $15 movement. It started in 2012 with a few hundred fast-food workers in New York City—mostly Black and brown women—walking off the job to demand a living wage of $15 an hour and a union. At the time, everyone dismissed them. The media, economists, politicians—they all said it was impossible. Jackson: I remember that. It seemed like a pipe dream. Olivia: It did. But the organizers were smart. They understood that this wasn't just an issue for them; it was an issue for all low-wage workers. They intentionally built a multiracial, multi-ethnic coalition. They brought in white workers from the Midwest, Latinx workers from the West Coast, and built a movement based on shared economic struggle, not racial identity. Jackson: They were filling the pool instead of fighting over the water. Olivia: A perfect way to put it. And the results have been staggering. The Fight for $15 has led to wage increases for over 22 million workers, putting an estimated $68 billion dollars directly into their pockets. And study after study has shown it didn't cause the mass job losses that opponents predicted. It was a massive, tangible gain for everyone, sparked by a movement that refused to be divided by race. That’s the Solidarity Dividend in action. Jackson: That’s incredible. It’s a direct counter-narrative to the drained pool. But I have to ask the skeptical question. The book was a huge bestseller, widely acclaimed, but some critics have argued this vision of solidarity is a bit idealistic. In a country this polarized, how realistic is it to expect these kinds of coalitions to form? Olivia: It's a fair and crucial question, and McGhee doesn't shy away from it. She tells a tough story about a union drive at a Nissan plant in Mississippi, where the company explicitly used racial fear-mongering to convince white workers to vote against the union, which they saw as a "Black thing." And it worked. The union vote failed. The drained-pool politics won that day. Jackson: So it's not a magic bullet. Olivia: It's not. She acknowledges that this work is incredibly hard. It requires confronting uncomfortable truths and actively fighting the zero-sum narrative that is constantly being pushed by those who profit from division. But her point is that the dividend is real. It's not a utopian fantasy. It's a proven strategy. From the Fight for $15 to communities in Maine coming together to fight for clean water, she shows that when people find their common humanity and shared economic interests, they can win victories that were previously unimaginable. Jackson: So it’s a choice. We can choose the story we want to live in. Olivia: Exactly. We can choose the story of scarcity and division, or we can choose the story of solidarity and shared prosperity.

Jackson: So when you boil it all down, the book is really presenting us with a stark choice. We can stick with the zero-sum story that pits us against each other and leaves us all standing around a drained, empty pool. Or we can embrace a new story of solidarity that fills the pool up for everyone to enjoy. Olivia: That's the perfect summary. Heather McGhee’s work forces us to ask a fundamental question, a question that defines our society: Who is the 'us' in 'The Sum of Us'? Is 'us' a small, exclusive group, defined by race and privilege? Or is 'us' everyone who shares this land and this economy? Jackson: And the answer to that question determines everything. Whether we have good schools, clean air, living wages, a functioning democracy. Olivia: It determines whether we prosper together or fail apart. There's a line in the book that has stuck with me since I first read it. She simply says, "Racism has a cost for everyone." It’s not just a moral problem for a few; it’s an economic anchor on us all. Jackson: It makes you start to see drained pools everywhere. In your town's budget, in the healthcare debate, in climate change inaction. Olivia: It really does. And that's the power of the book. It gives you a new lens to see the world. So, for everyone listening, we want to leave you with that thought: Where do you see a "drained pool" in your own community? A public good that has been neglected or destroyed because of division? And more importantly, who are the unexpected allies you could work with to start filling it back up? We'd love to hear your thoughts on our social channels. Jackson: It’s a powerful and, ultimately, hopeful message. A roadmap for how we might actually build a better future. Olivia: It is. It’s a challenge, but a hopeful one. Jackson: This is Aibrary, signing off.