2025-02-19
8 分钟Npr.
This is the Indicator from Planet Money.
I'm Waylon Wong.
And I'm Erica Barras.
From Planet Money.
Jordan Schimmerhorn was one of the many federal contractors who was thrown out of work last week.
Her job was with USAID, the U.S. agency for International Development, which distributes foreign aid.
As we covered last week, the Trump administration has halted foreign aid and it's gutting the agency, which had 10,000 employees plus contractors like Jordan.
I think it was a real choice to lay off 10,000 mission driven workaholics.
Jordan, fortified with her newfound spare time and a pile of Girl Scout cookies, embarked on a research project.
She decided to look into how USAID money supports American agriculture.
I haven't even applied for unemployment yet.
I've just been spending 247 trying to help build the evidence base for why USAID matters to the American people and why people throughout the country should care about it.
Jordan compiled data for all 50 states, plus a handful of US territories.
She looked into how the government buys huge amounts of crops to send overseas, plus how it funds agricultural research at state universities.
Today on the show, we look at how foreign aid benefits American farmers and what might happen to these programs under a dramatically reduced usaid.
Are we overlooking the challenges facing men without college degrees?
Richard Reeves thinks so.
There are a lot of guys out there who are actually poorer than their dads.
Reeves heads the American Institute for Boys and Men.