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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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.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic Is Economic Despair What's Killing Middle-Aged White Americans?
Two Princeton economists elaborate on their work exploring rising mortality rates among certain demographics.
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Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters Maybe the Economy Isn't the Reason Why So Many American Men Aren't Working
Many experts have blamed a poor job market, but new research indicates that an overlooked cause may be poor health.
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Eric Thayer / Reuters How Trump's Budget Would Impact Cities' Poorest Residents
Programs that help low-income Americans are not among the administration’s priorities in its just-released budget.
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Mike Blake / Reuters The Future of the Department of Labor Under Trump
David Weil, an Obama appointee who headed up DOL's wage-and-hour division, reflects on the previous administration and assesses the early days of the current one.
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Reuters When Factory Jobs Vanish, Men Become Less Desirable Partners
Declines in manufacturing employment are shaping the structure of the American family.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic The Downsides of 'Efficiency'
Company mergers led to plant closures in this small town, illustrating how what’s good for consumers can often be bad for communities.
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Tony Avelar / AP When Robots Take Bad Jobs
Maybe it’s a good thing the trucking industry is ripe for automation.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters Why #DeleteUber and Other Boycotts Matter
Even when a relatively small number of people participate
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Courtesy of the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room – Charlotte ... ‘Segregation Had to Be Invented’
During the late 19th century, blacks and whites in the South lived closer together than they do today.
