This month, Century Foundation senior fellow Steven Greenhouse participated in an Intelligence Squared debate at the iconic Village Underground comedy club in New York City—the series’ first live debate since the start of the pandemic. The topic: Do Unions Work for the Economy?

Debating the economist Allison Schrager, TCF’s Greenhouse argued that the economy is more than the stock market—it is about people, and delivering goods and services to make people’s lives better. And on that question, the answer is clear: unions make people’s lives better.

Listen to the debate in its entirety below:


To learn more, check out two of Greenhouse’s pieces on how unions help workers and our democracy, respectively:

Cover Photo by: Intelligence Squared