This blog is for "slow news." Slow news focuses on the "back story," why things are the way they are. Slow news provides context and connects the dots so that readers can develop a more coherent understanding of the world they are living in and themselves.
MSN's motto is "Read the news behind the news."
How is it that the people of West Virginia would elect someone like Joe Manchin to represent them in the U.S. Senate when he performs so poorly?
One reason might be that the people in West Virginia aren't that well educated. They are 45th in the nation in the quality of their education.
West Virginia ranks 41 in Pre-K through 12 and 47th in higher education.
People who make poor choices in their governmental representatives will receive poor service when it comes to their state resources for creating a quality life.
Our founding fathers knew that democracy took well educated votes if democracy is to work as a form of government of the people, for the people, and by the people. There could be no better example of the poor consequences in election decision making than in West Virginia.
The sad thing about West Virginians making such a poor choice for a Senator is that his performance not only affects the residents of West Virginia but the whole country.
How could citizens in better educated states help the voters in lower educated states choose better representatives to national office?
Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule is the book of the year in 2021 which most influenced me. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in systemic racism in America.
And while the claim might sound extreme, we may in fact be putting our human survival at risk. We confront multiple dangers today that could well be the end of us. The top five on my list (in no particular order): the risk of nuclear annihilation, climate change and its consequences, how the growing gap between the world’s haves and have-nots risks global economic destabilization, misuse of emerging technologies, and the growing potential for widespread disease. It is clear that effectively confronting any of the first four will require that we get beyond seeing the world in polarized, us-versus-them terms. I had not previously framed addressing the risks of worldwide disease in this way, but the 2020 pandemic has made it obvious that there, too, failing to bring more encompassing perspective to bear could be our undoing.
Johnston, Charles . Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord: Why We See Such Extreme Social and Political Polarization—and What We Can Do About It (p. xii). ICD Press.
While Johnston lists his top five risks of survival for homo sapiens, Michael Lewis does a similar thing and lists a couple of items not on Johnston’s list such as the shut down of the electrical grid and the fifth risk being the failure of competent management which we have seen manifested in the Trump Administration.
Beyond the values polarization we are experiencing right now in our society, it is managerial incompetence which can be most threatening as we have seen with the Trump Administration’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic contributing to millions of unnecessary infections and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Differences of values, opinions, and beliefs are one thing, but when they contribute to unnecessary harm, the people in our society are at risk for extinction. The polarization of values, opinions, and beliefs has significant consequences if they are not handled in a competent manner to minimize the risk they pose for the population subjected to and engaged with them.
The first step in problem solving is collecting accurate information about the factors contributing to the problem. The second step is naming the problem in a valid and reliable way so that all the stakeholders can agree on what to call it. The third step is working together across systems on collaborative strategies to mitigate if not eliminate the problem. The fourth step is identifying and adopting prosocial values that contribute to positive evolutionary development for our species and the planet.
I clicked the link and NYT won't let me access the article without subscribing.
The firewall says I can subscribe digitally for $1.00 per week for one year and cancel at any time. At the end of the year the subscription automatically jumps from $4.00 per month to $17.00 per month. My meme has been for 2021 and I will carry it over into 2022 "I don't do auto renew." It has a nice cadence. Say it three times to get the feel for it. You might even do a little dance to it.
Now, the firewall ad says I can cancel at any time. This is bull shit. You can't. You have to call a telephone number and talk to a salesperson who will badger and harass you. I have been through this before so I know, trust me.
My credit card got hacked when I used it to sign up for subscriptions and with all this auto renew nonsense who knows who has this information stored where? So in my grumpy old age, "I don't do auto renew."
Washington tops the list of states with the highest minimum wage while 15 states tie for last in terms of the lowest -- $7.25, which is the federal minimum wage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The 15 states with the lowest minimum wage equalling the federal level of $7.25 are:
Georgia
Iowa
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
North Carolina
North Dakota
New Hampshire
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Texas
Utah
Wisconsin
Wyoming
On April 27, President Biden signed a document that proposed regulations to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors. The order seeks to raise the hourly minimum wage paid by those contracts to $15 an hour, beginning Jan. 30, 2022, according to the Federal Register.
States where the minimum wage is going up in 2022 click here.
"The experience of slavery and its racist aftermath has defined the history of American social movements, and I can't name a time when the reaction against those movements wasn't at the center of American conservatism." The Elephant in The Room: Rick Perlstein on the evolution of the American conservative movement, The Sun, December, 2021, p.11
Editor's Note;
Using a cultural evolutionary model, the conservative movement is stuck at the ethnocentric stage of development which is immature relative to what humanity is capable of and destined for.
This shift has been underway in the U.S. for many years.
In the early 1900s, my grandfather grew up in a family with nine children in rural Iowa. They all worked hard to maintain the farm and support the family. Some of the children left the farm to attend college, start families and find work elsewhere. My father grew up in a city and worked as an adult to support his family as the sole income earner.
The next generation, the baby boomers, was raised during a period of economic expansion that accompanied an uptick in fertility – the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years. Post-boomer generations have had fewer children, contributing to a 50% decline in U.S. birth rates between 1950 and 2021, from 25 births per 1,000 people to 12.
Unbiased. Nonpartisan. Factual.
Economic opportunities, social norms and changing gender roles – especially expanding education and employment options for many women – help to explain why fertility has slowed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. That change has repercussions for trends in workforce numbers, employment, health care, housing and education.
Explaining the decline in fertility
Each generation experiences unique circumstances that affect fertility. The overall trend in declining birth rates, however, is largely due to women’s changing roles, employment shifts and advances in reproductive health.
After World War II, the U.S. saw rapid change in gender roles with the expansion of women’s education and entry into the labor force. Starting with the baby boom period from 1946 to 1964, many middle- and upper-class women had increased opportunities to get an education beyond high school, which had typically been the end of women’s formal education.
In 1950, only 5.2% of women had completed four years of college or more. By 2020, this proportion rose to 38.3%.
In comparison, 7.3% of men completed at least four years of college in 1950 and 36.7% in 2020 – a smaller increase than for women.
Increases in college education and rising employment among women tend to delay motherhood. Women with higher educational levels, especially unmarried women, tend to put off childbearing until their early 30s.
This situation contributed to women’s becoming mothers later in their lives. For example, the median age for first-time mothers among women who were born in 1960 was 22.7 years, compared with 20.8 years for women born in 1935.
Moreover, the teen birth rate was a record low in 2019, with 16.7 births per 1,000 girls and women ages 15 to 19. Birth rates remain higher, however, among Latina and Black teens than teens who are white or Asian. In contrast, the share of women ages 40 to 44 years who have ever had children increased from 82% in 2008 to 85% in 2018. Foreign-born women tend to have higher birth rates than U.S.-born women.
Geographic location also reveals important differences in the U.S. birth rate. Women in New England have fewer children, partly because of higher levels of education. In contrast, women in the South and Great Plains have among the highest birth rates in the U.S.
Finally, economic uncertainty affects fertility trends. Economists estimate that a family will spend on average $233,610 per child before they are 18 years old. Financial upheaval during the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 also contributed to declining birth rates, while the COVID-19 pandemic saw a 4% decline in fertility rates in 2020, the lowest since 1979.
A look at the future
Fewer babies and young people and a growing older population will undoubtedly affect future generations.
Several developed countries in Europe have also experienced declining fertility rates, with widespread social and economic impacts. In Italy, for instance, rapid drops in fertility have led to closing hospitals and schools. In 2019, the average Italian family had 1.2 children, part of a declining trend since the 1960s, when it was more common for families to have four children. As a result, Italy’s percentage of seniors is second only to Japan, with growing concern for future labor supplies.
In the U.S., lower fertility rates translate to fewer working-age people and possible labor shortages in many sectors of the economy. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of people age 65 and older has been growing, increasing by one-third since 2010.
Many economists and social scientists recommend a restructuring of work to support and retain the shrinking number of workers. These recommendations include more flexible work conditions, access to quality and affordable child care, immigration reform and job security. Several of these measures would provide much-needed support for parents and particularly women in the workforce.
Second, living spaces and residential housing may also have to accommodate this growing elderly population with arrangements that include assisted living, retirement communities and ways for people to age in place. These housing changes would help women in particular, who live longer than men.
Third, health services such as insurance, medical care and employment will have to adjust to these demographic shifts as more resources are needed to support an older population.
Finally, declining fertility rates are a growing concern for educators and policymakers. The so-called “demographic cliff” will inevitably lead to school closings and consolidation, and declining student recruitment and enrollment in the U.S. One projection is that there will be 10% fewer college students in 2054 than today.
The overall decline in fertility rates has far-reaching effects on society and future generations. In the early 1900s, college education and a career were not options for women like my great-grandmother. Advances in reproductive health and women’s expanding access to education and employment have produced a demographic shift with implications for work, housing, health care and education.
