Feb 27 How a hashtag turned into an international adjunct movement By Simone Pathe Adjunct college and university faculty staged a National Adjunct Walkout Day this week to draw attention to their contingent status. While discontent among the adjunct community has been brewing for decades, in recent years and months, grassroots efforts have sparked… Continue reading
Feb 18 Today’s racial wealth gap is wider than in the 1960s By Simone Pathe Average wealth in America has grown over the past 50 years, but not at the same rate for everyone. Wealth gaps, especially between whites and non-whites, are growing. In 2013, the average white family had seven times the wealth of… Continue reading
Jan 19 Watch 5:32 Obama offers plan to raise taxes on ultra-rich, put more money in middle class pockets By PBS News Hour President Obama’s new tax code proposal calls for tax increases for higher-income earners and more tax benefits for low- and middle-income earners. Jeffrey Brown learns more from Neil Irwin of The New York Times about what the plan says about… Continue watching
Jan 16 New report shows majority of U.S. students are low-income By Corinne Segal The report measured poverty among students by the number of those that qualified for free and reduced lunch. Continue reading
Oct 17 Americans consider inequality world’s greatest danger By Simone Pathe What's the biggest global threat these days? If you ask Americans and Europeans, it's economic inequality. In the Middle East, religious and ethnic hatred is of most concern. The Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project surveyed 48,643 people around the… Continue reading
Oct 10 How to teach self-control and reduce economic inequality By Walter Mischel If taught young, self-control skills can have strong protective effects, even helping those whose vulnerabilities might make them more likely to fall behind economically. That's according to Walter Mischel, author of "The Marshmallow Test," in part four of his conversation… Continue reading
Sep 04 Demanding higher wages, fast-food workers plan biggest national strike to date By Anna Christiansen The largest fast-food employee protest is poised to happen across the nation today. Organizers, including fast-food workers from KFC, Burger King, McDonald’s and other convenience restaurants, are demanding a pay bump to $15 an hour and fervently pushing to unionize. Continue reading
Jul 28 Why capitalism has nothing to do with supply and demand By Nick Hanauer Billionaire venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, whose family owns a pillow company, says there's a limit to how much his wealth can buy. "I may earn a thousand times the median wage, but I don’t sleep on a thousand pillows," he… Continue reading
Jul 25 When a college contracts ‘adjunctivitis,’ it’s the students who lose By Joseph Fruscione With adjunct professors constituting over 70 percent of college and university faculty, former professor Joe Fruscione explains why adjuncts are petitioning the Department of Labor about their working conditions, and why the real losers in this situation are the students… Continue reading
Jul 17 Real inequality: why things are better than they seem and will almost surely get worse By John Nye Welfare inequality, John Nye argues, is much less severe than it used to be, and trying to tax away or regulate income inequality will only make more intractable forms of inequality more pernicious. Continue reading