Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
According to the October jobs report, more than 92 million Americans — 37% of the civilian population aged 16 and over — are neither employed nor unemployed, but fall in the category of “not in the labor force.” That means they aren’t working now but haven’t looked for work recently enough to be counted as unemployed….
Back in July we wrote “Slamming The Door Shut On The “Plunging Labor Force Participation Rate” Debate Once And For All“, in which we showed, definitively we thought, that contrary to the pervasive and erroneous propaganda, the collapse in the labor force has little to do with the alleged millions of retiring baby boomers (quite…
While the Fed is digesting what the X-13 Arima seasonally adjusted payrolls number means for the future of US interest rates, the devastation of the US labor force continues. In what was an “modestly” unpleasant July payrolls report, yet somewhat better than June’s flagrant disappointment, the fact is that the number of Americans not in…
Because Amazon is mostly men, the men’s bathrooms were usually crowded. I worked there for four years, in the midst of Amazon’s greatest expansion of headcount. Even though the company had just moved to its new office in the South Lake Union area of Seattle, there was barely enough space for everyone. There certainly weren’t…
Photo Amazon employees entering the company’s offices in Seattle. It recently became the most valuable retailer in the country. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working. They are told to forget the “poor habits”…
My boss brought up the infamous Cheerios tweet on my first day. Almost a year had passed, but it was still a cautionary tale: At 8:06 pm on a casual Wednesday night, a seemingly innocuous tweet was sent out and quickly caused a firestorm. Within 24 hours, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called for…
Upworthy bet millions of venture capital dollars that progressive values are the ultimate viral content. But after being forsaken by Facebook and facing layoffs, we’re told the site’s left-wing leadership has successfully fought off a staff unionization drive. Over the weekend, I received the following anonymous message, alleging that Upworthy recently laid off six staffers…
ONE of the perks of getting old is that you are allowed to talk nonsense about the young. Plato was said to have complained that young people “disrespect their elders” and “ignore the law”. Peter the Hermit griped that they “think of nothing but themselves” and are “impatient of all restraint”. Today, grizzled business pundits…
Back in the fat years – two or three decades ago, when the “mainstream” media were booming – I was able to earn a living as a freelance writer. My income was meager and I had to hustle to get it, turning out about four articles – essays, reported pieces, reviews – a month at…
Young men today have aspirations of being hands-on fathers as well as breadwinners — supportive husbands who also do dishes. But as they enter that more responsibility-filled stage of life, something changes: Their roles often become much more traditional. Millennial men — ages 18 to early 30s — have much more egalitarian attitudes about family,…