The American worker is in crisis. Wages have stagnated for several decades. Despite nearly a decade of continuous economic growth and falling unemployment (as defined by official statistics), the percentage of Americans in the workforce is still well below normal levels. For the first time in modern memory, life expectancy has started to fall, as substance abuse and obesity rates rise.

Our guest in this episode, Oren Cass, argues that we've abandoned the American worker, and pushed four-college at the cost of other, more effective, solutions.

In his widely-praised new book, "The Once and Future Worker", Oren argues that government policy should emphasize production, not consumption. His arguments were summarized in The Atlantic.

"We've become obsessed with consumerism-- measuring everything in terms of consumers and living standards... In the process, we've forgotten that producing stuff is important too.

Oren Cass is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He worked previously the domestic policy advisor for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, and a management consultant at Bain & Company.