it. >> the 7th episode is scheduled to be released in december 2015. thanks for joining us i'm thomas drayton in new york. i'll be back for another hour at 8:00 pm eastern. stay tuned. "real money" with ali velshi starts now. thanks for watching. >> the struggling middle class is sure to be one of the biggest issues in the mid term elections. i'm going to ask a republican. and exactly where we can't afford to have them, in our education system and canada's got something america used to have and we'd like it back, please, i'll explain, when we come back. i'm ali velshi and this is "real money."

>> this is "real money." you are the most important part of the show so tell me what is on your mind. by tweeting medium or sending to facebook. science philanthropy meet in los angeles for milken conference. i will introduce them to you, it's a unique event put together by the milken institute, a nonpart distant institute. the institute was set up bip michael milken. now known for his philanthropy michael milken was known 20 years ago for fraud that landed him in prison. mary snowy has his story. >> welcome mr. prime minister. how would you like me to refer

to you at this session? >> tony. >> michael milken now attracts the spotlight from education to health. but it's a role that might not have seemed possible two decades ago. the junk bond king in the 1980s. that set upon risk 80 low income bonds that but institutions in debt. it was the largest criminal prosecution in wall street history. he was sentenced to ten years in prison but was released after 22 months after cooperating with the government. then prostate cancer changed everything. he fought the cancer and became a key figure in raising awareness and poured resources into research. starting his own foundation. by 2004, fortune magazine called

him the man who changed medicine. milken ranks 405th amongst the world's billionaires. just last month, he and media magnate sumner redstone donate$80 million to george washington university for preventive medicine research on a host of issues. mary snow, al jazeera. >> post recession america mid term elections, politicians are upping the rhetoric on america's middle class. 288,000 new jobs are created last month, republicans and democrats are talking tough on policies, they say aren't working. i spoke with douglas holts

eakin. the most excessive of thinkers when it comes to economic issues. former director of congressional budget office. he served on be president bush's council of economic advisors, he also advised john mccain. during his 2008 campaign. what republicans are going to say, supposedly there's an economic recovery, let's look at that recovery, look at the labor market, for example, the fraction of americans who are employed is below what it was before the recession. >> labor participation rate? >> the fraction who are in a job is lower. two things, one unemployment rate for those who are looking, that's no that good. teen unemployment, 20%. not that good. record highs jobs that are there, record part time temporary help employment.

real wages, not growing at all. from the perspective of the lay market, work full time and getting aning in not a lot of progress. so -- getting a job not a lot of progress. six years, that's where they begin and then what ca can conservatives do to deliver more jobs. >> polls indicate that americans do believe that if you don't feel the recovery has been strong enough the blame for that does go to the president. what do you do differently? >> number one you focus on structural reforms not temporary targeted policies. no more stimulus, no more jobs acts. you talk about getting a tax reform that is internationally competitive sand pro-growth. you talk about dealing with the budget problem in a realistic way so we're not threatening you do some things that republicans have traditionally done but got

away from. you talk about infrastructure -- >> you think it's a bipartisan issue but it's hard to get republicans and democrats to the table on this. >> i think traditionally you have to have the 21st century infrastructure. republicans have always been good on that issue. they need to get back on that. they helped invent the earned income tax credit. >> the earned income tax credit many say would be a better place to focus, which has been the increased income restriction. >> the minimum wage has two really bad characteristics. number 1 it interferes with jobs. we can talk about how many jobs it kills but it doesn't create jobs doesn't get people into jobs. the successful is having a job. second, it's not targeted on poverty. you know if you look like a ceo report that says we're going ogo

to 36 bill to low income workers a tiny fraction are in poverty, the earned income tax credit, a great way to track people who are in the labor force, it goes directly to poverty households and there's no stigma. >> let's talk a little bit about immigration. this is another area where it's this internal struggle in the republican party. there are some who think hey, look carlos carrasco, it', it's. not so progressive attitude bit. >> we've had several rounds of this. one in 2007, 2008, quite acrimonious very bitter. a lot of progress has been made. from a conservative point of view, how important this is for the economy. this is time for poor economic growth. we've got a great opportunity in immigration to improve our economic growth.

immigrants start businesses, they bring skills, they work harder, they work longer than necessitate of born they're an asset. >> always good to talk to you. pleasure to have you. china was on everyone's mind at milken, after the international monetary fund raised its forecast from from 7.2, to 7.5%. i had a chance to talk to ju min, the deputy director of the people's bank of china. >> news for china, good news for whole world. because china facing few challenges. deleverageing in the financial sector, the debt ratio is really high, and to push the rebalancing, also big challenges and also push the reform agenda. when everything mixed together, growth were slow down.

that's a tradeoff. you push for the growth and push for the reform. i think the chinese government has made it very clear, understand situations, they want to take the gradual approach, they want to keep the growth to 7.5, energy efficiency, climate changing in the east coast, high speed railway in the middle and the west, meanwhile, push for reform agenda and move this thing forward. >> how do you explain to a western audience china's attempt to get its consumers to buy more, what are the things involved in doing that? >> the key issue involving open the service sector. if you want the people to school the first issue you want to make sure people can earn more money so they can buy things. how can people earn more money? they have to open service sectors and also you open the soe sector in, people will be

able to hire more people so when people will be able to earn more money they will be a consumer. which is healthy and good. >> we've also seen strikes at a factory that manufactures sneakers. that's got to say something about the chinese population that they feel bold enough to strike and to want higher wages. >> i think that's inevitable. in the growing process the labor will require higher and higher wages. the wages has been low, in the past few years the wages have been increased which is good. put china up the value chain. china cannot day in the low value-added manufacturing. to give the laborer high wages, also help about consensus, the social stability. i think china, can neefer admonish wage and income as

well. >> what a pleasure to talk to you. >> more from the milken conference ahead. ant exactly where we can't afford to have it in our education system. that story and more as "real money" continues, keep it right here. borderland on al jazeera america also available on demand

>> results of analyses were skewed in favor of the prosecution >> the fbi can't force the states to look at those cases >> the truth will set you free

yeah...don't kid yourself >> the system has failed me >> the effects of income inequality in america show up in many areas including education. two-thirds of high school graduates from the nation's wealthiest families enroll in four year colleges. but only one in five low income students joins them. and a student from a high income family is 14 times more likely to attend the nation's most cell phone universities than a low-z more selective universities than a low-income kid is. steve napp the president of george washington university is trying to narrow that gap. looking at how to increase college access and graduation rates for low income students. i sat down with him at the

milken conference to discuss the education gap. >> as much of a problem we have getting low income students in, an even greater challenge we have i graduating them. >> sometimes they're the soul supporter of the family they can't finish because they've got to go back to provide support for the rest of the family. some of those issues, it is very clearing emerged from many discussions in the studies, if families if they haven't sent a daughter or son to college, they can't figure out how to do that. >> it can be very onerous. >> know out how to get the information accurately supplied, they may not even know how to be

guided to a correct matchup between the interests and the aspirations of the student and the institution, part of that by the way is caused by the fact that we have a very low ratio of college counselors to students across the country. the average is 1 to almost 500 students. >> wow. >> in california it's 1 to a thousand students. >> who fixes this problem? is it a high school public education problem to fix or is it a university's problem to fix? >> high schools where motion of the changes take place but we wanted to commit to help that. the college gap this probe of access and success of minority and lower income students in our higher education system at all levels, community college, it's not for profit colleges like ours, universities, public universities, we want to help in the district of columbia our home town by actually going into the high schools and into the communities be, lower plieshes,

providing -- and that's something we committed to do and we're going to establish liaisons with all the high schools in the district of columbia yah but we have to reach beyond that level down into the lower grades. by the time students get into high school, it is awfully hard to fix that after they get to college. earlier grades than just the high school years but part of it is also information from the family and part of it is concrete help in getting through system. it's really navigating a complex system if you don't have previous experience with it you don't even know what to park to take to college. >> you're basically in some ways hoping that the public school system catches up but you're actualitying some of the college -- actually substituting some of the why college advisor's work. >> 80 colleges and universities

from around the country the president and first lady brought together and to help out in the challenge. as soon as i got back from that summit i creacted a task force -- created a task force university wise, with the advising when students arrive. the searsness of the problem getting into college it's at least as serious a challenge getting through college without accumulating a lot of debt. families don't know how to put together the financial packages that would reduce the debt burden that would otherwise have on graduation. >> the applications the knowing how to apply there's also this academic gap that tends to grow in lower income households year after year in part because of the activities they take part in, in the summer. a lot of studies show with each passing year the minority or the low income student at a further disadvantage, by the time they graduate from high school, from

an academic preparation standpoint, that's going to make cleej more of a challenge. gls the most academically prepared students from lower income families and compare them with the lowest achieving, less prepared students, they graduate from college at almost exactly the same rate. the higher income students who are lower achieving, graduate about 30% and lower income, higher achieving graduate at about 30%. >> is it a myth that higher performers academically are at a disadvantage with the expectation they don't need to go to college? >> when they do they're not going to perform as well as people coming from other communities around the anxiety, you find yourself in a classroom and worried what others are thinking of you and they may be expecting you to perform more poorly than in fact you're

capable of performing, what's demonstrated is that has an effect on performance. >> what a great conversation. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure. >> our neighbors to the north have something that america used to have and have lost. coming up. the performance review. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. could mean less waiting for things like security backups and file downloads you'd take that test, right?

well, what are you waiting for? you could literally be done with the test by now. now you could have done it twice. this is awkward. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business.

>> how old are you? >> 9 >> child labor in america >> in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. you don't see any of that in agriculture >> low cost food >> how many of you get up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning to go out to the fields? >> who's paying the price? fault lines... al jazeera america's hard hitting... ground breaking... truth seeking... >> they don't wanna show what's really going on... >> award winning, investigative, documentary series. children at work only on al jazeera america >> canada has taken something from the united states, and politicians in washington should be working very hard to get it back. justin bieber, i'm kidding.

canada is the home to the highest middle class in the world. the study documented after-tax income in 20 countries, since 1980. and it showed that through the years the united states, which had the highest median income for decades, began losing ground to canada in 2000. and by 2010, median incomes in the u.s. and canada were roughly equal. now that's where the lu lux luxg study left off. leading to the likely conclusion that canada's median income is now the highest in the world. the reason: it might have a little bit to do with luck and olot to do with policy decisions, according to diane francis, award winning

journalist, editor in charge of canada post, merger of the century, why canada and america should become one country. i had a chance to speak with her at the milken conference this week. >> the government didn't collapse, our banks are so big and so powerful that they could take the whole country down. so they're not allowed to do cowboy stuff. they didn't go bust, this real estate didn't go bust. but the most important factor is 2003 the commodities took off. we created oil and mining jobs, forestry jobs, agriculture jobs and that's the reason behind it. the other interesting thing is they didn't include sales taxes. and to be fair, canada's incomes may be higher, the middle and lower class, our minimum wage is higher, $11 an hour. we pay a 13% sales tax on

everything from haircuts to buying a car. it is onerous. they grab our cash back at the cash register even though we get higher minimum wages and do better. >> a lot of people argue for a value-added tax in the united states. what do you think of that idea? >> it is considered regressive. >> because it punishes people who buy stuff. >> they don't save money, they buy things. they get killed at the cash register in taxes. they do give allowances to low income people to help rebate some of those tamps but it doesn't cover -- taxes but it doesn't cover it all. it is two different models of who different economies. i would say they work a well. the minimum wage is a problem. >> the one place the u.s. is getting a little more like canada is with higher energy production. so we're becoming a little bit

more commodity based, certainly not to the degree that canada ask. what are the other aspects that america can try and look at canada to say hey we can do that to strengthen our middle class? what would you recommend? >> i would hope these banks are too big to fail, everybody's moaning and groaning about, nearly brought the world economy down, the banks and wall street and so on. so we didn't have that issue so that's got to be stuck-to even if a republican gets in the next time. it's got to regulate the financial system. >> some of the biggest banks in the world are canadian. rbc, te. >> six of the 10 largest in the world are canadian. the legislation goes a long way but there's a powerful virtue yovirulentmoneyed lobby on wall,

that seem to get something they want. that is something americans have to be vigilant about. >> we have lot of discussions, concentrating on the middle class for the economy for the year. >> good for you. >> there are some that say the declining and hollowing out of the middle class is partisan rhetoric. i don't think it's partisan rhetoric, i think it's true. the middle class are the consumers you need to support your business enterprises that grow the economy. in canada is there this concern that the middle class is being hollowed out? do you feel more secure about that? >> the middle class is the ballgame, it should be, they're the ones that vote, they're the ones that create the small businesses, that create the big businesses and so on. i think what's really important in the united states is that we have to admit the fact and the u.s. is at the forefront of

this, 70% of software is made in the united states, automation is the issue. some of the work will be done by machines and robots, they won't be done by people. we have to have a better education process. the united states has a very spotty incomplete public education system. canada's much better, and where the united states has the added burden of millions of people that have been in low incomes that haven't had the privileges and benefits that need to be boot strapped up and that's the genius of the public education system and that's always been good in the united states and canada and europe. education is important but the dirty little secret about the future is technology equals unemployment unless you get in front of the curve by being more technologically savvy and educated. so nat and science in schools are important. some of the things jeb bush did in florida i think are really

interesting in terms of reading the reading skills and that's the basic. bit by bit i think people are understanding but that middle class is going to be erodeby technology unless people step up. >> diane always pleasure to speak to you. thank you for being on the show. >> the economy kicks into full gear. i'm going to introduce you to three middle class families we've gotten to know so well, they've opened up their homes to show us challenges, like paycheck to paycheck living can stress out the whole family. real money. 7:00 eastern, 4:00 pacific. that's our show, i'm ali velshi, are thank you for joining us and have a great weekend. every day >> we had to pull the whole retirement fund... >> real stories... real people...

real advice... >> you need to pay the water bill, if you don't pay it, we're shutting your water off in a half hour >> how will you survive? >> the stakes are so high... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on al jazeera america

hello i am i am richard againstburg. you are at the listening post. a huge news story in nigeria and why the coverage is so scarce. the philippines where journalism does not come easily. ethiopia says it doesn't care what human rights groups think. it's putting another 9 journalists on trial. chalk one up to the imagination in our web video of the week. it had all of thll