currently ranked number two at u.s. news and world report. 19 that strommer, a professor asked her student what is they thought the average american makes in annual wages. think about that, how would you have answered that question? well, she then tweeted their response, quote, i asked wharton student what is they thought the average american worker makes per year. and 25% of them thought it was over six figures. one of them thought it was 800,000. the professor said the real number is $45,000. and "the washington post" reported that according to the social security administration, the average u.s. annual wage was in fact $53,383 with the median wage at $34,612. we don't know how many students responded to professor's question, that 75% of the students, three quarters of the class got it right been placate the blogosphere. as one tweet put it, that's the average of who they know, which is why rich people usually don't feel rich. this was borne out by another who pointed out that the median income of a family at u.n.pen is $135. the top 3% come from the bottom. and someone else tweeted a people of the matriarch from arrested development guessing that a single banana costs $10. but there's a serious aspect as noted in other tweets. how does a business school not require any kind of economics class that actually discusses the existing economics of the u.s.? or, remember, those setting economic policy are more likely to be wharton or similar grads, then have worked multiple minimum wage jobs. and of course, that's the real concern. this was not some late night television man on the street interview. these are future masters of the universe who will soon determine policy. we're currently experiencing the worst inflation in 40 years. over the last year, inflation driven by cars, furniture, other goods. you've seen all the data. we would help that wharton future grads can figure it 0 all out but if they can't emphasize with the infrastructure, many will suffer. many have pointed to the status of wharton students. tuition at wharton is about 80 grand a year. the average annual income by contrast for those living in west philadelphia, the neighbor where wharton is housed is about 34 grand. 24% of the phillians live in poverty. but being out of touch with neighbors cuts both ways. the social science suggests that the poor would be equally off-base in estimating the income of the rich. and, to me, it's all reminiscent of what dr. charles murray described in his 2012 book "coming apart." murray is a provocative libertarian. he argued in that book that america is coming apart at the seams, not from race, but from class. a large part of the problem, he posited, is that people in working-class neighborhoods are no longer connected to the wealthy. denying the former with a needed form of social order. murray argued that while there have always been rich and poor folks who had somewhat different customs and morays, there used to be a lot of interchange and it used to be either the rich folks had grown up poor or middle class and knew what that was like personally. but all of this is changing and ten years ago, he wrote, it's going to get worse. this it does what is it's like power is in the hands of a new upper class that requisites to make decisions for the remainder of society. i guess you could say he was pressured. which leads me to the question at smerconish.com. i want to know what you think, which poses a greater threat to the social fabric of the united states, differences in race or differences in class? now, in the case of the wharton professor, she tweeted, a lot of people want to conclude this says something special about wharton students. i'm not sure it does. people are notoriously bad at making this kind of estimate thinking the gap between rich and poor is smaller than it is. she linked to a study of 2011 published by harvard business school and duke university which found respondents back then, too, dramatically underestimated the level of wealth inequality. and all democratic groups desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo. one of those authors joins me now, michael norton, head of business administration at harvard business school and he's co-author of the book "happy monday the war of spending." professor, the wharton professor said in a tweet she's not sure this says something special about wharton students. what do you think? >> one of the things we've found in research all over the world, literally, if you ask a person in a company what does the richest person make and lowest person make, all over the world, 40 countries if you look at rich people and poor people making the estimate. if you look at people on the left, people on the right, we almost never find any group that's accurate. nearly everyone we surveyed all over the world just doesn't know the current distribution of these things. i think it's partly, it's just hard to know. we don't always have the information that we might need. >> what do you make of the link i tried to make to charles murray's work saying maybe what drives this, we're not walking anymore in one another's shoes? >> if i asked you what the average height of someone, what we often do is start with ourselves and people we know. then we start to think, oh, there's also nba players, maybe i should factor them into it. so, i do think we have a tendency to focus on what our own income is when asked these questions and try to extrapolate from that. and that means everybody is a little off in how they estimate. they're all starting 65 by example of one and then trying to move on from that. i'm not sure how much it means that all of us are growing further apart. so much we're all in a different spot, so it changes the way we think about the question. >> so, what's your takeaway? she linked then in an explanation to your academic research, this has gone viral. in the wee hours of this morning, it was still the number two item at the "washington post" on a pretty busy news day. watching it from a distance, what are you thinking? >> one of the things we've seen, if you think about the way things actually are and we can ask people the way they think things are but we could also ask them, how they'd like it to be. if it were up to you, what would rich people and lower income people be paid. and what we find in all of these surveys, it's true people are inaccurate on the current levels but every group wants them to be more equal than what they are, including the richest people in the sample and people left and right. and for me, underneath a lot of the disagreements about the minimum wage and wealth pack and all sorts of things there is actually some consensus among americans and all over the world that people do think that the current level is a little off, and would like things to be more equally distributed. >> do you think if you were to survey your harvard students you'd get a similar result to what she found at wharton? >> i'm very tempted to say we've never found a group that's particularly accurate. i will say when i do these surveys with executives people in their 40s and 50s working for is some time, they're actually the most accurate group. it is the case when people have been working for quite some time and have seen the world, they do actually get better at estimating these differences. again it's really hard -- >> again, it's funny you say that i opened telephone lines on my sirius xm radio program yesterday, cold, without telling people why i was asking. and i posited the question what does the average american wage earner make and they were pretty close which i was thrilled about. professor, thank you so much. it's a really interesting and important subject. i appreciate you being here. >> thank you. >> what are your thoughts, tweet me at my facebook page. from the twitter-verse this comes. it's a reflection between the disconnect in society and between the haves and have nots. has always existed but the gulf is getting wider. this may ultimately lead to the country's downfall. bill bishop wrote the book "the big sort" real quick, we drifted apart. no more elks club, no more rotary, et cetera, et cetera, when we re-engaged in the internet era, it was easy to associate with the like-minded. look at the fragmentation of the media. this weekend is an exception. we're all going to watch the nfl, right? but we don't have common experiences anymore. that's my scompexplanation. we want to know which poses a greater threat to the social fabric of the united states, differences in race or differences in class? still to come, new cdc data, booster shots sharply increase the immunity to the effects of omicron. but also turns out people who had covid actually had better resistance to the delta variant than the vaccinated. could that be why france's and austria new strict mandates still allow exemptions if you've had covid in the past six months? plus, 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had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. there were several important developments on the covid front this week. yesterday, the coronadc release results of three new studies that highlight the importance of getting a booster shot to protect against the omicron variant. omicron cases now account for 99% of new covid cases in the united states. and here's the bottom line. these three world class studies confirmed that people who have gotten their boosters are less likely to have a breakthrough, and when they do, they are much milder. but less than half the population eligible for a booster shot has received one. still, cdc director rochelle walensky said yesterday, the cdc didn't plan to change the definition of what it means to be fully vaccinated. also this week, another cdc study was published regarding the delta variant showing that a prior case of covid-19 protected people from infection better than vaccinations did during the delta wave last summer and fall. that's delta. that's not omicron. but it's a reminder that other countries treat prior infection differently than the united states. as i've discussed here before, in many other countries people who have had covid within the past six months have the same status as those vaccinated. among them, austria, belgium, france, germany, greece, israel, turkey, united kingdom and the vatican. starting monday, france is implementing a vaccine requirement. anyone over 16 must have proof of full vaccination to access activities. a negative pcr or antigen test will no longer be accepted. you know what will be accepted? a recovery certificate showing that you have tested positive more than 11 days ago and less than six months ago. soon in austria, effective mar 15, a new mandate kicks in called europe's strictest. for those people recovering from covid-19 infection are also exempt from 180 days from the date they receive their first positive pcr covid-19 test. then there's england, come monday, england, which already had the least stringent covid restrictions in europe is ending them, they're ending them all, including covid passes including vaccination or negative tests. even mandatory face mask rules. it's a heck of a lot to process. who better to discuss all of that with than chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. his book "keep sharp build a better brain at any age" just came out. doctor, thank you for being here, what are your takeaways from a busy week of data? >> well, first of all, with regard to the studies around vaccination and boosters, i think this is important. there's two things that really jumped out at me. i can show you the data, in terms of the likelihood of someone developing a breakthrough infection if vaccinated versus vaccinated and boosted. what they found was the biggest difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. you did get a benefit, not an insignificant one from being boosted as well. there's two stories here. as you point out, michael, less than half the people who qualify have actually gotten them. but a larger part of the country is still far and awade the unvaccinated. i'll tell you in a second, quick, there's increasing evidence in terms of how long the vaccines last. the waning effect of vaccines over time. what they found, basically around the six-month mark, things changed. if you've been vaccinated earlier than six months ago, your protection against this is roughly around 57% against a seshg lating virus. if you've been within the last six months, closer to 81%. that's the addition, you get an additional 90% if you've been boosted within the last six months. there's two stories there. the vaccines seem to work. they work best early on. and a booster sort of restores that benefit significantly. >> subject of what it means to be fully vaccinated came up at president biden's presser this week. here's a snippet i want to show you. >> why hasn't this white house changed the definition of fully vaccinated to include that third booster shot? is it because the numbers of fully vaccinated americans would suddenly look a lot less? >> no, it's not that at all. it's just this has become clearer and clearer, every time i speak it i say, if you've been vaccinated, get your booster shot. everybody get the booster shot. it's the optimum protection you can have. >> if the data you that just referenced speaks to the efficacy of boosters, why not change the definition? >> you know, i -- this is a little bit confusing, i admit, michael. i think this is one of these collisions of public health and public policy and some of this may be semantics. what they've added is this sort of saying up to date, are you up to date on your vaccines? which would mean you've been boosted, especially if you've had your vaccines greater than six months ago, you need to be boosted. i think the big thing is if you have received your vaccines within the last six months, you've got really good protection. i mean, if you get boosted, it will increase it somewhat. but the greatest benefit is getting boosted in people who got their vaccines longer ago. it just gets confusing. i think, as a result, they're not very clear about it. there are may also be legal implications, michael. as you know, what is fully vaccinated? if i just got my shots a couple months, i should be considered fully vaccinated, if i got my shots sometime last year or greater than six months ago, not fully vaccinated. are you going to check all of that, are you going to check vaccination status and data vaccines? i think that's what they're grappling with here. >> i think it will have profound implications, i think of our own still on college or grad campuses and have to be vaccinated. what exactly does that mean. >> right. >> do you think -- i was very careful to make sure i said the data pertaining to the delta variant suggested if you have covid, you had some level of protection, maybe even that exceeded vaccination. we don't know yet about those who had omicron. anything you wanted to say quickly on that point? >> this is an important topic so it's tough to condense in a couple sentences, natural immunity or infection-acquired immunity is a thing. no doubt about it. if you get infected with diseases you probably have lifelong immunity. i think the challenge here is not all infections are the same, an older person who had mild symptoms when they got the disease may not have generated the same amount of antibodies than a young person who got sick. if you're trying to implement public health across hundreds of millions of people do you say the vaccine offers a more consistent, reliable, predictable amount of immunity. versus the people who say, look, i got infected i'm probably not protected, but i'm not sure how protected i really am. that's the challenge here. natural immunity is real. i don't think we've dealt with it as well in the united states as other countries but we may still get there. the original sin, as we talked about last time on your program, michael, is the lack of testing. we just don't have good eyes on the problem so we don't know who is really explosioned in this country, who has natural immunity, who doesn't. >> that's a great point. every time i see the data, i think it's exponentially larger. dr. gupta, appreciate you. >> thank you. >> from the social media world. i'd rather be vaccinated and contract a mild case than gain increased immunity at the risk of a severe case. yeah, adam, i'm certainly not advocating, hey, sit back and collect it, get infected and be good. no, i want everybody to be vaccinated and boosted as i am, for sure. i do find it interesting that united states is kind of an outlier in comparison to europe and the developed world in terms we don't give you a six month allowance. don't misunderstand where i'm coming from. get vaxed and boosted. go to smerconish.com for the survey question. which poses a greater threat to the social fabric of the united states, differences in race or differences in class? up ahead, campuses are theoretically havens for free speech. professors with tenure, theoretically means their jobs are secure. what is about professor amy wax that compelled the university to start proceeding to oust her? >> there is this, let's call it danger of dominance of asian elite in this country, and what does that mean? dull to firm and radiant. with olay body, i feel fearless in my skin. plaque psoriasis, the tightness, stinging... ...the pain. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. okay everyone, our 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dustup, wax made december 20th on the podcast of brown university glenn lowery about immigrants from asian countries. >> there is this, let's call it danger of the dominance of an asian elite in this country? and what does that mean? what is that going to mean to change the culture, that's not a popular idea to say that? why would you ever say -- >> well, what's the danger -- what would be wrong with having a lot of chinese or indian or korean engineers, physicians, computer scientists? and whatnot, running around here, creating value enlightening the society. i mean, how do we lose from that? how do we lose from that? >> well, does spirit of liberty beat in their breast, glenn? >> in a written response to a listener, wax further elaborated, as long as most asian support democrats and help to advance their positions, i think the united states is better off with fewer asians and less asian immigration. she previously stirred outrage in another lowery episode that was in september of 2017, called the downside for social uplift for saying this -- >> here's a very inconvenient fact, glenn, i don't think i've ever seen a black student graduate in the top quarter of the class. and rarely, rarely, in the top half. i can think of one or two students who scored in the top half in my required first year course. >> wax added that she based her opinion on the performance of her own students because, quote, a lot of this data is closely guards as a secret. at the time, the dean of penn law school theodore ruger fired back saying it's false. saying black students have graduated in the top of the class of penn law. and contrary to any suggestion otherwise, black students at penn law are extremely successful both inside and outside of the classroom and until careers. and that the united states would be better off as a country if favored from western countries due to compatibility adding that nationalism means in effect taking the position that our country would be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites. pretty ugly stuff, right? but tenure is supposed to be an ongoing gig that stems them to retirement that frees them from career worries and not just financial ones. as the penn faculty handbook explains a system of tenure for faculty members is the pre-eminent means of protecting freedom. and for removal of just cause or financial exigency. an action of flagrant disregard of the standards, rules or mission of the university or customs. pretty broad, it's not a complete list, everything from playinger rich to funds, to harassing a member of the community to sexual assault and murder. what led the dean of the lawsuit to warrant a hearing process that could result in anything from similarly reduction to suspension to termination. in a statement this week, ruger wrote that, quote, her conduct has generated multiple complaints to members of our society citing the impact of pervasive and recurring virt treeial and promotion of white supremacy as cumulative and increasing. these complaints clearly call for a process that can fairly consider claims, for example, that her conduct is having an adverse effect. joining me keith willington of princeton university who chairs the group known as academic freedom alliance. which this week sent a letter to the law school defending professor wax's right to extend her views. can we agree from the beginning that she has said awfully repugnant stuff? >> sure, she has. certainly things i disagree with, wrong as policy matters wrong as a moral party, but oftentimes, people do say things that i find offensive. >> would you go, professor, as far as to say she has made racist statements? >> i don't know if i'd necessarily characterize it as that. we'd have to go through the details of what exactly she said, the question ultimately is, it doesn't matter whether we character uniteize as racist or whatever. universities to express their views in public as individuals, those are strictly strong positions of what people say in life, for example, omni podcasts, and we have to be very cautious before we try to punish them on it for expressing it even if we find those political views disturbing. >> right. but i'd like to see if that extends to racism. i find this of interest, the philadelphia inquirer, the hometown newspaper here, put it up on convenient, there are no qualifiers in the way they described this. this is the lead paragraph, the university of pennsylvania's law school dean tuesday announce head would initiate a process that could lead to sanctions against longtime law professor amy wax for her racist comments. it kind of jumped out at me, there's not even a word "alleged" in there. if they're right, and arguably, they are, does tenure extend to racist statements? >> yeah. i think it does, the question becomes in part what context and of which you're saying it. we tend to, given the kind of political debates that we're having these days, and polarization in particular, we see racism get bandied about. and if someone wants to characterize it as racist is enough to get a professor fired, we'd have a lot of fired professors as a consequence. i think there are very different standards and traditionally, universities have recognized different standards what it is that people say in public. as far as their political opinions on a podcast, for example, as opposed to what they may say in a classroom. it's very different. if amy wax is saying similar kinds of things in a classroom, dirt rules apply. and she'd be in trouble. but at a podcast, protections are quite broad. >> i hear you differentiating between the two. but if i am a student of color, why would i want to be in her classroom? hasn't she besmermersed me of i? if i'm walking around on campus, how am i to feel? >> no. certainly, students i think are going to be offended if engaged. and amy wax's situation, it's true and lots of other situations that professors make broad statements, broader than they ought to make at sometimes, particularly groups of students in their classrooms. and students often object to that saying they don't trust the faculty as a consequence. she has an obligation to make sure hshe's grading people fairy in the classroom. they have a responsibility to find that out, and if so, punish her and take the steps. just because people are nervous about it because she's making people uncomfortable, that's not sufficient. >> yeah, but -- first of all, i appreciate your willingness to have this dialogue. yours is an important point of view and i appreciate we can have the discussion. however, when she questions, quote, does the spirit of liberty beat in their breast? i'm an asian student and this professor questions, you know, whether i feel that. like potter stewart, like pornography, knowing when i see it, i think i know it when i see it. professor, thank you. >> keep going with that prompter. still to come, on monday, jury selection begins for 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landmark supreme court decision restricting the ability of public officials to sue for defamation because of "the new york times" versus sullivan. get ready for palin. as in sarah palin, former governor of alaska and onetime presidential candidate. the trial is expected to begin with jury selection on monday. palin alleges she was defamed by a june 2017 editorial the paper published about the shooting at a congressional softball game in alexandria, virginia, in which four were wounded including then republican w.h.i.p. steve scalise. "the new york times" said there was a causal connection between an advertisement run by a sarah palin pac and gabby giffords, the key piece as originally published by the "times" said this, was the attack evidence of how vicious american politics have become? probably. and kill ing six people includig a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. before the shooting, palin's political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts. and with hate speech and anti-trump liberal, their right, though there's no sign of incitement as direct as in the giffords attack. liberals should hold themselves to the same decency that they as ask of the right. here's the map with overlaying crosshairs of the map aggr aggregating the districts. the ad was a controversy at the time, but in fact, there was no causal link found between the palin pac ad and the shooting of giffords. shortly after the "times" editorial ran, the number published a construction, quote, an editorial on thursday about the shooting. representative steven scalise incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting of representative gabby giffords. in fact, no such link was established. the editorial link also established a map by the committee before the shooting, it depicted electoral districts, not individual democratic lawmakers' unique crosshairs, does sarah palin have a case? >> joining me a professor of professor yarl practice at columbia. he wrote how "the new york times" editorial page got sued by sarah palin. professor, thank you for being here. clearly, they screwed up. the issue, right, is whether it reaches the level of actual malice. reckless disregard to the truth or malice and falsity. speak to that standard. >> well, thanks for having me, mike. and yes, this is an incredible case. it was well-known at the time that james bennett, the editorial page editor at the "times" inserted this language into the editorial that palin with the political action committee ad was not tied in any way. or at least evidence that it was. basically, what palin has to prove is either that the "times" showed actual malice which would be basically a bunch of "the new york times" people conspireing to say things about sarah palin. or they demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth. and the case that palin has made, and pretty effectively so far, is that this -- this editorial does fall into that second category. and that's why this case is so unusual, because palin is a pure public figure. and public figures in this country have a very hard time suing the media. >> so, clearly, the politics of governor palin and the politics of the editorial page of the "the new york times" are very dissimilar to say the least. i know you that read a great deal in the litigation file. did you find any personal animus directed toward her? is there any evidence that you saw where the "times" people said, oh, here's our opportunity, you know, to take it to sarah palin? >> no, just the opposite, michael. i mean there are hundreds of pages of depositions from james bennett who is the editorial page editor. elizabeth glimpseson who is the person who wrote the first draft and a bunch of other people on the editorial page of the "times." by the way, this is purely the editorial page it has nothing to do with the news site. this is basically a screwup, everybody knows sometimes, they do screw up, with an editor and his prose and somebody's copy but there was no evidence that i saw anywhere in the current court file that demonstrates that the "times" had it out for s palin and were together. >> and quickly, what are her damages, as she alleges? >> well, she claims that her reputation was damaged. she claims that her -- her appearances on fox news were diminished. but she doesn't -- at least from the deposition she gave a few years ago, she doesn't clearly demonstrate exactly what she suffered either emotionally or on a financial level. and that, i suspect, is why palin is asking not just for actual damages but also punitive damages which is a way of demonstrating to the overall journalism community that you just can't do this anymore. and that's where the "times" may face some liability. but i would say, overall, palin has a very big mountain to climb here. >> climb here. >> it's a high standard, the predicate is if you're a public figure, you've got platforms on which you can defend yourself, which intuitively makes sense. bill, thank you so much, that was excellent. it's going to be interesting to watch this face unfold. still to come, more of your best tweets and facebook comments, go to smerconish.com if you have not already voted. here it is, which poses a greater threat to the social fabric of the united states, differences in race or differences in class? i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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