Gabrielle Glasier writes in The Atlantic about the problems of alcohol abuse and how it is treated in America. The United States already spends about $35 billion a year on alcohol- and substance-abuse treatment, yet heavy drinking causes 88,000 deaths…
Blog Archives
Marriage
Fascinating statistics about marriage. sociologist Andrew Cherlin points out, just two years after the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage in 2015, a full 61 percent of cohabiting same-sex couples were married. This is an extraordinarily high rate of…
Posted in Labor
Dismal state of dentistry
Julie Beck wrote that In America, we treat the mouth separately from the rest of the body, a bizarre situation that Mary Otto explores in her new book, Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in…
Posted in Health
Which space is more important for determining your wellbeing, work or home?
Vs. Most working adults in Western nations spend more waking hours at work than at home. Why do people spend so much time at work (and on long commutes) in order to spend as much as they can on large,…
Posted in Labor
The Lead Conspiracy
How much money would you require to be paid to voluntarily put yourself through lead poisoning that makes you sick without killing you? Some people would do it for a few million dollars. This helps explain why people lie and…
Posted in Health, Public Finance
Is the Fed finally thinking about Americans at the median income and below?
Most people think that the president has a lot of power over the economy, but that isn’t true. Presidents have very little direct power over the economy by law. The Fed is the only part of government that has the…
Posted in Macro
The minimum wage is nearly dead
The federal government has just set the record for the longest period of time without an increase in the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. The minimum wage has now been ignored for over a decade and Kevin Drum…
