- By Robert Reich
The biggest untold story about how we pay for government involves a big switcheroo by America’s wealthy.
The United States spends much more per person on health care than other developed countries. But it’s largely because prices are higher, not because Americans get more care, according to a new study.
- By Anthony Veal
It was once widely anticipated that the process which saw the standard working week fall from 60 to 40 hours in wealthy nations over the first half of the 20th century would continue.
Stocks have been slumping on a variety of concerns, from President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with China to worries about an economic slowdown and rising interest rates.
Many of our festive traditions – from exchanging cards and pulling crackers to decorating trees – were popularized by the Victorians.
The Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 shots, killing the African-American teenager Laquan McDonald; 14 of those shots were apparently fired while McDonald lay on the ground.
Just like the rest of us, the rich and powerful have had to accept that youth is fleeting, that strength and health soon fail, and that all possessions must be relinquished within a few decades.
The number of farmers markets in the US has grown dramatically in recent years, but with an aging population of farmers, who’s supporting this growth? Meet the “new American farmer.”
The U.S. economy is growing at the fastest pace in five years, American companies are earning record profits and unemployment is at the lowest level in almost half a century.
As a sociologist who studies feminist activism, I often get asked when and how the #MeToo movement is going to trickle down. This is a fair question, and not one easy to answer.
In the wake of controversial and widely publicized incidents involving the use of deadly force by the police against racial and ethnic minorities, President Obama appointed the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing in 2015 to propose ways to improve policing in the U.S.
- By Dean Baker
The right would like us to believe that the inequality we see in the United States, and increasingly in other countries, is a natural outcome of market processes.
Forida, 22, lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with her infant son and husband. They live in a dark compound built mostly of tin and wood with six other families and just one toilet. It floods and leaks when it rains, and beside the compound is a polluted pond that attracts mosquitoes. Forida says that if she were paid a little more money, she could one day send her son to school. She could live happily; her family could live a better life.
- By Robert Reich
Sorry to deliver the news, but it’s time to worry about the next crash. The combination of stagnant wages with most economic gains going to the top is once again endangering the economy.
- By U. Melbourne
There is a significant perception gap between what the general public think about why people become homeless, and what people who have experienced homelessness say
Kelsey Hrubes knew she had a challenge on her hands when she visited Germany as a study abroad student back in 2015. “I was forced to adapt to cultural norms I had never considered before and try to comprehend everything in a new language,” recalls Hrubes, a software engineer at Microsoft and 2017 Iowa State graduate in German and computer science.
- By Megan Blake
One in every five people in the UK today are living in poverty – that is, living with a household income below 60% of the median national income when housing costs are considered. Food is a key component of household budgets. Poverty is linked directly to how people access food.
A family in India needs fresh water. But this family can’t just turn on a tap. Instead, the women in the household must walk to fetch it, sometimes travelling miles carrying plastic or earthenware pots, possibly with a child or two in tow, to the nearest safe source – regularly repeating the journey up to three times a day.
Halloween is a time when cultural norms are turned upside down: we encourage children to dress up as creatures from nightmares – witches, zombies, vampires – and we send them out to wander the streets in the dark, demanding sweets from strangers.
The purpose of our social, economic and political systems is to enable all Australians to lead good lives. Australia is doing well on some fronts. It ranks third out of 188 countries on the UN Human Development Index, which takes into account life expectancy, education and national income per capita. We also rank 19th on national income per capita.
You might expect that the more equal opportunities in these countries might reduce other differences between the genders, such as what kind of jobs people are more likely to have, or personality traits such as kindness or a tendency for risk-taking.
Why do the richest 1% of Americans take 20% of national income, but the richest 1% of Danes only 6%? Why have affluent British people seen their share of national income double since 1980, while over the same period, the income share of wealthy Dutch hasn’t budged?
- By Sapna Parikh
If the United States doesn’t address rising inequality, the middle class could start feeling the effects in the form of fewer government services, one expert says.