U.S. Annual Income Fell More During Recovery Than Recession: Study [GRAPHS] We may technically be in a recovery, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Median annual income has declined 4.8 percent from $53,508 to $50,964 since the recovery technically began in June 2009 , according to a new study from Sentier Research. That's nearly double the 2.6 percent drop during the recession. One especially hard-hit group: Americans aged 55 to 64, who saw their annual income drop nearly 10 percent. “Based on our data, almost every group is worse off now than it was three years ago,” Gordon Green, co-author of the report, wrote in a press release. Household median income has fallen since the recovery: However, there are some groups that have actually been faring better since the beginning of the recovery; Americans over 65 saw their income levels rise. Still, another recent report has shown that America's middle class has been shrinking since 2008. But these two recent reports aren't the only ones with gloomy news about Americans' earnings. (Hat tip: Los Angeles Times) 10.
College Students Are Going Homeless and Hungry -- And Corporate America Is Trying to Exploit Them Photo Credit: Monkey Business Images via Shutterstock.com August 27, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. As the mainstream press frets that the much-touted "economic-recovery" appears to have lost steam, the economic crisis continues to escalate for ordinary people. With official unemployment holding steady at 9.5 percent (real unemployment is much higher), and with the state budget cuts producing yet more tuition increases, a growing phenomenon is sweeping the nation: homeless and hungry college students. National Public Radio (NPR) reported in late July: "For many college students and their families, rising tuition costs and a tough economy are presenting new challenges as college bills come in. While no exact figures are available, the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth reports a large increase in homeless students.
Fact Sheet: Paid Family and Medical Leave SOURCE: AP/ Louis Lanzano Rabita Sarkar and her husband Aditya Saurabh pose with their newborn baby boy at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York.The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee workers paid time off to provide care to a new child. By Sarah Jane Glynn | August 16, 2012 Fact Sheet: The Wage Gap for Women by Sarah Jane Glynn; Fact Sheet: Workplace Flexibility by Sarah Jane Glynn and Joanna Venator; Fact Sheet: Child Care by Sarah Jane Glynn; Fact Sheet: Paid Sick Days by Jane Farrell and Joanna Venator; Ask the Expert: The Need for Paid Sick Leave by Sarah Jane Glynn Download this fact sheet (pdf) Read this issue brief in your web browser (Scribd) Most Americans are working hard to pay their bills and to take care of their families, yet too many employers make it impossible to juggle those work and family obligations. About half of all workers on U.S. payrolls today are women. Fact Sheet: The Wage Gap for Women by Sarah Jane Glynn
Goodbye, Liberty! 10 Ways Americans Are No Longer Free August 29, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Our most fundamental rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are under assault. Life? Liberty? The pursuit of happiness? These changes didn't just happen. Corey Robin notes in the Nation that this conservative appeal to “economic freedom” has been met by Democrats who present themselves as “new Victorians,” standing for “responsibilities over rights, safety over freedom, constraint rather than counterculture.” Not only is this politically and emotionally unappealing, it's demonstrably wrong. Is that how you feel when you're dealing with your bank? While the Right portrays popularly elected government as a faceless oppressor, large corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals – what we're calling “Big Wealth” -- are trampling on our individual rights and liberties every day. Here are 10 critical examples, drawn from the headlines and from our everyday lives. 1.
Poverty: The New Growth Industry in America Recent trends in poverty rates should have the country furious at its leaders. When we get the data for 2011 next month, we are likely to see yet another uptick in poverty rates, reversing almost 50 years of economic progress. The percentage of people in extreme poverty, with incomes less than half of the poverty level, is likely to again hit an all-time high since the data has been collected. The situation is made even worse by the fact that so many of those in poverty are children. In 2010, 27 percent of all children in the country were reported as living below the poverty level. Many will blame the welfare reform law in 1996 that passed with bipartisan support. Advocates of this bill who now profess surprise at the result need to turn to a new line of work. However, there is the other side of the story, the overall state of the economy, which is the more important cause of the increase in the poverty rate.
Noam Chomsky: Why America and Israel Are the Greatest Threats to Peace September 3, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. It is not easy to escape from one’s skin, to see the world differently from the way it is presented to us day after day. The war drums are beating ever more loudly over Iran. Iran is carrying out a murderous and destructive low-level war against Israel with great-power participation. Iranian leaders are therefore announcing their intention to bomb Israel, and prominent Iranian military analysts report that the attack may happen before the U.S. elections. Iran can use its powerful air force and new submarines sent by Germany, armed with nuclear missiles and stationed off the coast of Israel. All unimaginable, of course, though it is actually happening, with the cast of characters reversed. Like its patron, Israel resorts to violence at will. Iran too has carried out aggression – but during the past several hundred years, only under the U.S.
10 Questions to Help Determine if Your Religious Liberty Is Being Threatened Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com September 9, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. It seems like this election season "religious liberty" is a hot topic. I'm a religious person with a lifelong passion for civil rights, so this is of great interest to me. 1. A) I am not allowed to go to a religious service of my own choosing. 2. A) I am not allowed to marry the person I love legally, even though my religious community blesses my marriage. 3. A) I am being forced to use birth control. 4. A) I am not allowed to pray privately. 5. A) Being a member of my faith means that I can be bullied without legal recourse. 6. A) I am not allowed to purchase, read or possess religious books or material. 7. A) My religious group is not allowed equal protection under the establishment clause. 8. A) Another religious group has been declared the official faith of my country. 9. 10. Scoring key:
Large, Profitable Companies Employ Most Minimum-Wage Earners A female Walmart employee goes down an aisle, stocking shelves, Tuesday, June 22, 2004 in Warminster, Pennsylvania. Walmart employs 1.4 million Americans and a vast majority of them at wages under $10 per hour. (Photo: William Thomas Cain / The New York Times)If you’ve ever had a conversation about the minimum wage with friends and family, you invariably hear an argument about how raising it would hurt small businesses. There is compelling academic research that increasing the minimum wage doesn’t dramatically impact employment levels, but a new study underscores another important point—most people earning minimum wage work for large, profitable corporations. The National Employment Law Project looked at Census data from 2009–11 and found that 66 percent of low-wage workers are employed by large businesses with over 100 employees. Moreover, it found that the fifty largest employers of low-wage workers have all recovered from the recession and are in strong financial positions:
Shocking Report Explodes 5 Myths About American Education September 18, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. A new international report demolishes several deeply held myths about our educational system. Myth #1: Our educational system provides more upward mobility than any other in the world. It’s practically a sacred oath to proclaim that we lead the world in upward mobility. Not true, says the OECD report. Just how low is our ranking? Myth #2: Our teachers (protected by their greedy unions) work less and get paid more. It’s open season on public employees, especially teachers and their unions. Wrong! But surely, aren’t these unionized teachers making too much money? Myth #3: Big government (via our tax dollars) funds higher education. In state after state politicians are taking an ax to higher education budgets. Well, we almost lead the world in overall spending on higher education, both in absolute dollars and as a percent of GDP.