Daily Clips: October 8th, 2015
It’s getting harder to move beyond a minimum-wage job: “Minimum-wage jobs are meant to be the first rung on a career ladder, a chance for entry-level workers to prove themselves before earning a promotion or moving on to other, better-paying jobs. But a growing number of Americans are getting stuck on that first rung for years, if they ever move up at all.”
According to Five Thirty Eight’s Ben Casselman, the minimum wage is no longer a useful stepping stone to better paying jobs. In the past twenty years, the job ladder in America has developed an increasing gap between the bottom and middle rung.
Gallup says it’s done with horse race politics: Gallup has been the “elder statesman” of presidential primary polling, performing research on races since the 1940s. But all good things must come to an end. Gallup’s editor, Christopher Newport, admitted that the changing interest of Americans and the cost of developing such polling were big factors. (Though I believe it may also have something to do with their awful 2012 polling accuracy.) “We believe to put our time and money and brainpower into understanding the issues and priorities is where we can most have an impact,” Newport told Politico.
Hold the gunmakers accountable: EJ Dionne talks about the need to “hold those who make billions of dollars from the sale of firearms accountable for what their products do to individuals and communities.” That is an interesting approach to gun violence and one that differs from more inter-personal solutions like background checks. Instead, Dionne is calling for corporate responsibility, noting:
Responsible business people care about the well-being of their communities and live with all sorts of health and safety regulations. They above all should see how profoundly misguided it is that one of the least accountable industries in the United States involves enterprises selling products that kill people.
Seattle tries to keep its soul in the midst of a tech boom: Prosperity often leads to rising costs of living and Seattle is currently experiencing this negative aspect of economic success. This New York Times article does a great job of illustrating this tension. It is definitely worth a read.
