Our Classless Society
The Financial Diaries of Low- and Moderate-Income Families
I listened to an episode of Planet Money last night and discovered the U.S. Financial Diaries project, which is tracking more than 200 low- and moderate-income households over the course of the year and collecting highly specific details about the financial activity that occurs in the home.
Good Work Margaret Sullivan, Good Work Annie Lowrey
Some minimum wage coverage in the New York Times.
When You Ask Me If I Can Spare a Dollar
The things that run through my mind when a stranger asks me for money.
The Poor House for the Formerly Rich
Once upon a time, a rich person built a poor house for formerly rich people so they wouldn’t have to feel poor if they lost all their money. It didn’t last.
Costco Wants Its Employees to be Happy
Bloomberg Businessweek is examining some of the things big box retailer Costco does right—just as Walmart workers are preparing to protest for better wages and working conditions at Walmart’s annual meeting tomorrow held in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Leveling the Field
Rich kids have advantages that children from low-incomes do not, so what are some ways we can even the playing field? Chuck Collins examines this question in his essay for The American Prospect.
People Are So Nice to You When You Have Money
Molly Crabapple has a cool essay at Vice about money and meritocracy.
Have You Ever Noticed There Aren’t a Ton of Poor People in The New York Times
NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan addressed the paper’s coverage of poverty in her Saturday column. Her verdict: “The Times’s coverage of poverty strikes me as a paradox. It is both top-notch and too occasional. Improving that is not impossible.”
“I Never Call Myself an ‘Inmate.’ I’m a Prisoner.”
John Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA waterboarding people and now he’s in federal prison in Pennsylvania for 30 months. He sent this letter to his lawyer from jail. Very good letter. Very interesting. Very much inspires me to not want to go to jail. Wasn’t wanting to go before, definitely not wanting to go now. Let’s all do the right things and stay out of jail, okay? Except as Mr. Kiriakou shows, that’s not enough actually! Not enough at all.
