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, its 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 worlds 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 americas middle class. 288,000 new jobs are created last month, republicans and democrats are talking tough on policies, they say arent 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 bushs council of economic advisors, he also advised john mccain. During his 2008 campaign. What republicans are going to say, supposedly theres an economic recovery, lets 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, thats 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, thats where they begin and then what ca can conservatives do to deliver more jobs. Polls indicate that americans do believe that if you dont 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 progrowth. You talk about dealing with the budget problem in a realistic way so were not threatening you do some things that republicans have traditionally done but got away from. You talk about infrastructure you think its a bipartisan issue but its 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 doesnt create jobs doesnt get people into jobs. The successful is having a job. Second, its not targeted on poverty. You know if you look like a ceo report that says were 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 theres no stigma. Lets talk a little bit about immigration. This is another area where its this internal struggle in the republican party. There are some who think hey, look carlos carrasco, it, its like taxes. Not so progressive attitude bit. Weve 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. Weve 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 theyre an asset. Always good to talk to you. Pleasure to have you. China was on everyones 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 peoples 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. Thats 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 chinas 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. Weve also seen strikes at a factory that manufactures sneakers. Thats got to Say Something about the chinese population that they feel bold enough to strike and to want higher wages. I think thats 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 valueadded 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 cant afford to have it in our education system. That story and more as real money continues, keep it right here. Im Joe Berlinger this is the system id like to think of this show as a watch dog about the system. To make sure justice is being served. With our personal liberties taken away from us, it better be done the right way. Is justice really for all . Every saturday, Al Jazeera America brings you conversations you wont find anywhere else. Youre listening because you wanna see what happen. Get your damn education. Talk to al jazeera only on Al Jazeera America oh my. The effects of income inequality in america show up in many areas including education. Twothirds of High School Graduates from the nations 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 nations most cell phone universities than a lowz more selective universities than a lowincome 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 in graduating them. Sometimes theyre the soul supporter of the family they cant finish because theyve 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 havent sent a daughter or son to college, they cant 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 its 1 to a thousand students. Who fixes this problem . Is it a High School Public education problem to fix or is it a universitys 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, its 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 thats something we committed to do and were 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. Its really navigating a complex system if you dont have previous experience with it you dont even know what to park to take to college. Youre basically in some ways hoping that the Public School system catches up but youre actualitying some of the college actually substituting some of the why College Advisors work. 80 colleges and universities from around the country the president and first lady brought 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 its at least as serious a challenge getting through College Without accumulating a lot of debt. Families dont 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 theres 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, thats 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 dont need to go to college . When they do theyre 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 youre capable of performing, whats 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. Al jazeeras Investigative Unit has tonights exclusive report. Stories that have impact. That make a difference. That open your world. This is what we do. America tonight next only on Al Jazeera AmericaAl Jazeera America. Theres more to it. You followed their journey across the border it was heart wrenching. Now see how it changed the lives of the people involved. I didnt go back to the person that i was before i left. An emotional borderland reunion this trip was personal to me. This is real. Long held beliefs. Illegal in mexico too. Learn the language come here. Most ridiculous thing ive heard in my life tested by hard lived truths. These migrants are being exploited beyond borderland. Only on Al Jazeera America canada has taken something from the United States, and politician s in washington should be working very hard to get it back. Justin bieber, im kidding. Canada is the home to the highest middle class in the world. The study documented aftertax 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 thats where the lu lu lux embourg study left off. Leading to the likely conclusion that canadas 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 didnt collapse, our banks are so big and so powerful that they could take the whole country down. So theyre not allowed to do cowboy stuff. They didnt go bust, this real estate didnt go bust. But the most important factor is 2003 the commodities took off. We created oil and mining jobs, forestry jobs, agriculture jobs and thats the reason behind it. The other interesting thing is they didnt include sales taxes. And to be fair, canadas 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 valueadded tax in the United States. What do you think of that idea . It is considered regressive. Because it punishes people who buy stuff. They dont 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 doesnt cover taxes but it doesnt 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 were becoming a little bit more commodity based, certainly 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, everybodys moaning and groaning about, nearly brought the World Economy down, the banks and wall street and so on. So we didnt have that issue so thats got to be stuckto even if a republican gets in the next time. Its 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 theres a powerful virtue yovirulentmoneyed lobby on wall, 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 dont think its partisan rhetoric, i think its 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, theyre the ones that vote, theyre the ones that create the small businesses, that create the big businesses and so on. I think whats 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 wont be done by people. We have to have a better education process. The United States has a very spotty incomplete Public Education system. Canadas much better, and where the United States has the added burden of millions of people that have been in low incomes that havent had the privileges and benefits that need to be boot strapped up and thats the genius of the Public Education system and thats 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 thats 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. Im going to introduce you to three middle class families weve gotten to know so well, theyve 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. Thats our on real money with ali velshi, a yearlong series, americas vanishing middle class. Im on a mission, that i have to keep this business going. Three families struggling 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 dont pay it, were shutting your water off in a half hour how will you survive . The stakes are so high. Americas middle class rebuilding the dream on real money with ali velshi on Al Jazeera America watching. On america tonight, the weekend edition, the up and down sides of a high plains boom down. In our exclusive investigation, what came to williston north dakota and the high price of that black gold. This, right here, is a huge area for prostitution. Right here at walmart . Wherever the money is and the men are. Also tonight a push from the top. The white house joins survivors, ur c