Legalizing Sex Work, WFH Trends, Buy Now Pay Maybe, School Counselors

Ravi takes a moment to acknowledge Musk’s tweet on WFH before offering his own managerial insight into the pros and cons. Rikki jumps in as the resident Gen Z ambassador and elaborates on why her age group is eager to be in the office. Cory offers another perspective, touching on the class divides of the WFH debate.

Cory and Ravi delve into the relatively novel world of Buy Now, Pay Later, discussing how it risks burying young customers in debt. Rikki points out the sad lack of financial literacy in her generation that allows for such an industry to be so successful.

Ravi tackles Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s apology on behalf of the Biden Administration for underestimating the issue of inflation and he and Rikki welcome that earnestness while casting doubt on the plausibility of her explanation.

Rikki and Ravi paint a picture of the horrible conditions facing sex workers and argue legalization, or at least decriminalization, would leave them significantly less vulnerable. Cory pushes back with a differing moral perspective that focuses on the potential societal harms of legalizing prostitution.

The hosts find common ground in their concern for today’s students and how they’ve lost as much socially as they have academically. Ravi, Cory, and Rikki examine some of the factors that have contributed, including school closures, technology, and politicization/polarization.

Ravi unveils another one of his radical ideas that might seem a bit strange at first, but starts trickling down to good sense by the end. 

Work-From-Home Trends [1:00]

Elon Musk WFH Tweet (Twitter, 06/01)
Elon Musk trashes remote work (Axios, 06/01)
The Ultimate List Of Remote Work Statistics for 2022 (FindStack, 04/24)
Chart: Remote work is disappearing as more people return to the office (NBC News, 05/12)
Twitter, Reddit and 8 other companies offering permanent remote or hybrid work—and hiring right now (CNBC, 04/13)
Tell your boss: Working from home is making you more productive (Vox, 05/30)
The Great Return: Companies Are Calling Their Workers Back to the Office as COVID-19 Fades (US News, 03/04)
50% of companies want workers back in office 5 days a week–why experts say this strategy could fail (CNBC, 03/18)
Telecommuting Trend Data (updated June 22, 2021) (Global Work Analytics, 06/2021)
6 Ways Working from Home Will Save You $4,000 or More Annually (FlexJobs)

Buy Now, Pay Later [8:30]

Buy now, pay maybe? CFPB takes aim at fintech names (YouTube, 12/16/2021)
Buy Now. Pay (and Pay, and Pay, and Pay) Later. (Intelligencer, 05/23)
Gun Sellers Push Quick Buy Now, Pay Later Financing (Bloomberg, 05/28)
Buy now, pay later is not a boom, it’s a bubble, Harvard researcher says (CNBC, 05/13)
Missed Payments, Rising Interest Rates Put ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ to the Test (The Wall Street Journal, 06/01)
What’s this craze about “”Buy now, pay later” companies? (Finshots Daily, 08/2021)
Afterpay: Buy Now, Pay Later (Business Breakdowns, 04/14)

Yellen/Biden/Inflation [15:42]

Treasury secretary concedes she was wrong on ‘path that inflation would take’ (CNN, 06/01)
Yellen: “I was wrong about the path inflation would take” (Axios, 06/01)
Biden’s COVID relief package is ‘right size’: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (ABC, 03/13/2021)
Janet Yellen admits she was ‘wrong’ about inflation threat (Financial Times, 03/31)
Inflation barreled ahead at 8.3% in April from a year ago, remaining near 40-year highs (CNBC, 05/11)
Inflation slows for the first time in 9 months (CBS News, 05/11)

Sex Work [18:26]

LA strippers look to form first exotic dancers union in decades (New York Post, 05/06)
Ten Reasons to Decriminalize Sex Work (Open Society Foundations, 04/2015)
It’s Time to Decriminalize Sex Work (ACLU, 01/21)
Moral Panic Over Sex Work (YouTube, 05/14/2019)
Why Prostitution Shouldn’t Be Legal (Demand Abolition)
Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution And a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution (Journal of Trauma Practice, 2003)
Why prostitution should never be legalised (The Guardian, 10/11/2017)

School Counselor Data [30:25]

362 School Counselors on the Pandemic’s Effect on Kids: ‘Anxiety Is Filling Our Kids’ (The New York Times, 05/29)
School Counselors on How to Help Students Recover From Pandemic Stress (The New York Times, 05/29)

Ravi’s Radical Idea [39:15]

Where Did All the Public Bathrooms Go? (Bloomberg, 11/05/2021)
Public Toilets: Which Countries and Cities Have the Most — and Which Ones Have the Fewest? (The Gate with Brian Cohen, 10/31/2021)
‘Appalling Lack of Public Toilets’ in the U.S. (The New York Times, 04/03/2021)
America is suffering from a lack of public toilets (The Economist, 12/10/2020)
Public Urination Laws and Penalties (CriminalDefenseLawyer)
Can You Really Become a Sex Offender for Public Urination? (Shane Phelps Law, 02/10/2020)