Social Security remains our nation’s key source of retirement income for most Americans. The program’s overall health is sound and with relatively modest tweaks to the program’s financing, we can strengthen the system for generations to come.
Strong voter participation and engagement are fundamental to a healthy democracy. Efforts to restrict access to voting fly in the face of this important goal. Yet, despite another midterm election in November 2010 in which only 41 percent of eligible persons voted, numerous states are now facing renewed efforts to restrict, rather than expand, the franchise. Increasing numbers of states are considering strict voter identification laws that would disenfranchise thousands, and possibly millions of Americans.
In order to reverse the troubling low graduation rates at our nation’s community colleges, low-income students must stop being financially penalized for attending these institutions. As this brief outlines, low-income students who attend community college receive less state and institutional grant aid, on average, than their counterparts at four-year public universities. Community College Students and Grant Aid recommends that states equalize their need-based grant allocation and that community colleges prioritize need-based institutional aid.
Strong voter participation and engagement are fundamental to a healthy democracy. Efforts to restrict access to voting fly in the face of this important goal. Alarmingly, despite another midterm election in which nationally only 41 percent of eligible persons voted, many states are now renewing efforts to restrict, rather than expand, the franchise.
Missouri is considering a bill requiring all voters to present government issued photo identification at the polls. The fact that Missouri is introducing a restrictive voter identification bill is particularly unfortunate considering the legislature passed such a bill in 2006 and it was struck down as unconstitutional under the state's constitution by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Americans use credit cards millions of times every day. The convenience and utility of revolving credit has become a way of life for most families. However for some, it has also become a lifeline.
Today there are almost 29 million people in the United States for whom the economy has failed to perform its most important function: providing enough jobs to go around. This reality is dimming the lights on the American Dream. It threatens to steal from an entire generation the dignity that comes from a hard day’s work. Our political leaders have effectively accepted this situation, turning from the moderate job creation strategies of 2009-2010 to an austerity agenda that will cost as many as 1 million more jobs.
Young Invincibles and Demos partnered to complete The State Of Young America report, the first comprehensive look at the economic challenges facing young adults since the Great Recession. In addition, we conducted a groundbreaking poll with Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research & Consulting of 872 young adults (18-34).
Walmart is the country's largest private-sector employer. Which has made it a target of both praise and criticism. [...]
"Walmart's business model is pretty simple," said Amy Traub. "The company pays its workers poverty wages. It offers few benefits and it manipulates workers' hours and understaffs its stores."
That model is expanding the gap between the extremely wealthy and everyone else in America.
Supporters of a higher minimum wage, however, remain undeterred. "Wal-Mart's business model is pretty simple," said Amy Traub, an associate director of policy and research at equality advocacy group Demos, at a recent debate hosted by Intelligence Squared U.S. (IQ2) in New York.
To better understand capital punishment in America—how it works, who it affects, and the myths that continue to surround it—we’ve compiled 10 of the best long form articles on the subject from Fusion and around the web.
While Trump and his allies can debate his progress elsewhere, there’s little dispute that the president’s congressional agenda has been a wreck so far. His glaring failure to sign any major legislation or at least make significant progress on a signature bill stands out among modern presidents. [...]
The division that threatens to split this country in two is not between red and blue states, or between rural and urban areas – it is between the way we discuss politics and the realities of American lives, none of which fit into tidy categories. Contrary to popular narratives, you can be a progressive populist, a wealthy and college-educated Trump supporter, a rural laborer of color, a provincial urbanite, an open-minded midwesterner.
