America’s Great Divergence
A growing earnings gap between those with a college education and those without is creating economic and cultural rifts throughout the country.
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Chris McGrath / Getty The Mystery of Why Japanese People Are Having So Few Babies
Many point to unromantic 20-somethings and women’s entry into the workforce, but an overlooked factor is the trouble young men have in finding steady, well-paid jobs.
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Jeff Chiu / AP From 'Not in My Backyard' to 'Yes in My Backyard'
Out of a desire for more-equitable housing policy, some city dwellers have started allying with developers instead of opposing them.
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William Thomas Cain / Getty Will Grad Students Lose the Right to Unionize Under Trump?
Last year, students at private universities were granted collective bargaining rights. A reversal may be coming.
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Mark Schiefelbein / John Minchillo / AP / ... Will China Save the American Economy?
Though Trump is skeptical of globalization, more investors from overseas are building factories and creating jobs. Will they find the U.S. a hospitable place for business?
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Chris Bergin / Reuters How Factory Closures Doom the Next Generation
Widespread job loss can create financial and emotional stress that prevents children from attending college.
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Beck Diefenbach / Reuters A Billionaire Defends Modern Philanthropy
The founder of LinkedIn talks about how wealthy Americans can use their money to make a difference.
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Bettman / Getty States With Large Black Populations Are Stingier With Government Benefits
Research suggests that states with homogenous populations are more willing to spend on the safety net than those with higher shares of minorities.
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Rich Pedroncelli / AP Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?
Recent lawsuits are asking courts whether the current crisis is comparable to the one over tobacco in the ’90s.
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Christian Charisius / Reuters Making the Machines That Replace Humans
A visit to a robot factory in Ohio
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Jim Bourg / Reuters The Unworkable Math of Trump’s Budget
Economists say the document doesn’t account for the costs of tax cuts and its other policy proposals.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic All the Ways Retail's Decline Could Hurt American Towns
As brick-and-mortar stores close, local governments in struggling regions lose much-needed tax revenues.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic The Men Who Take 'Women's' Jobs
As employment options shrink in parts of the Midwest, many men who once worked in manufacturing are finding new careers in health care.
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Jason Cohn / Reuters 'All the Men Here Are Either on Drugs or Unemployed'
The disappearance of manufacturing and the rise of opioid abuse has hit men in the Rust Belt hard. That’s meant women are left to pick up the pieces.
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Isaac Brekken / AP The Parts of America Most Susceptible to Automation
No, they’re not in the Rust Belt.
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Charles Krupa / AP Could Small-Town Harvards Revive Rural Economies?
Less-populous places with colleges are thriving, but reproducing that success elsewhere is difficult.
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Gene J. Puskar / AP Why Would Congress Bail Out Miners’ Pensions?
If legislators don’t act by the end of April, miners will lose their health-care benefits. They may soon lose their retirement benefits, too.
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Chuck Burton / AP The Saga of North Carolina’s Contaminated Water
The state’s GOP leadership tried to make the state more business-friendly. Now residents are saying their water isn’t safe to drink.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic Getting High-School Grads Into the Closed-Off World of Tech
A Silicon Valley program is matching young, lower-income workers with employers eager to diversify their ranks
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Carlos Barria / Reuters Why It’s So Hard to Get Ahead in the South
In Charlotte and other Southern cities, poor children have the lowest odds of making it to the top income bracket of kids anywhere in the country. Why?
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John Minchillo / AP The Problem With Modern Philanthropy
A new book argues that the giving patterns of today’s wealthy may present challenges to the democratic process.
