It’s a common refrain: The middle class is hollowing out; Americans overall are increasingly falling short financially while a few are getting exceedingly rich. There’s even a scoreboard of inequality. We’ve persuaded ourselves that many families can no longer achieve the American middle-class dream the way their parents once did. It’s a political hot button,…
Sunil Rastogi, an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi, normally works 12-hour days to make ends meet and save for the heart surgery he needs. But in summer, as temperatures climb above 100 degrees, he faces a dilemma. Should he work fewer hours, bringing home less for his family and delaying his surgery, or press ahead…
In the early months of the year, thousands of men make their way north from Mexico and Central America to tend America’s most delicate crops. They travel on chartered buses through the night to farms where they spend most of the year picking crops like blueberries and celery, produce still harvested best by human hands….
Thousands of young African men have signed up to fight in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Some have posted cheerful videos with Russian soldiers. But many others say they were deceptively lured to Russia and then coerced into signing military contracts. Many have been killed on the battlefield. Though Africa is thousands of miles from the…
I want to be kind because your intentions seem good. But I’m also not entirely clear on what your intentions are. Are you trying to help your colleagues? It doesn’t sound like you have any guarantee that your boss would reapportion your raise to other employees, and I’m not sure how much solace they would…
