Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

Finding true love, philosophers have always understood, can get complicated in deeply unequal places. Grand fortunes tend to give Cupid a hard time not just on Valentine’s Day, but all the time. “If you gain fame, power, or wealth, you won’t have any...
The Ultimate Captive Market

The Ultimate Captive Market

Now here’s a heads-they-win, tails-we-lose situation: Three of the contracts Arizona signed with private companies to house its prisoners require 100 percent occupancy. That’s right: If the state fails to send along enough jailbirds to fill all the beds,...
This Week in OtherWords: February 5, 2014

This Week in OtherWords: February 5, 2014

This week in OtherWords, Mitchell Zimmerman, Khalil Bendib, and I weigh in on the Affordable Care Act and Jill Richardson ponders better ways to mark Valentine’s Day. On our blog, Karen Dolan sizes up the Farm Bill in verse. Do you want to make sure you...
Tipping the Scales of Inequality

Tipping the Scales of Inequality

At a pancake house in Houston, Claudia spent two hours rolling silverware into napkins on a slow weekend night. Without any tables to serve, she wasn’t tipped to supplement her $2.13 hourly wage. Like many other restaurant employers, Claudia’s boss did not...
Are We Doomed to Ever More Inequality?

Are We Doomed to Ever More Inequality?

America’s ongoing debate over economic inequality may be turning a new page. Starting in the 1980s, during the debate’s first chapter, pundits and policymakers battled over whether the United States was in fact becoming more unequal. This initial debate is...