Original Reporting

Original Reporting | By Kevin C. Brown | Alternative models, Labor

The big three German automakers — BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen — each produce vehicles not only in Germany, but also in “transplant” factories in the U.S. The former are characterized by high wages and high union membership; the U.S. plants pay lower wages and are located in so-called “right-to-work” states. It turns out that “inevitability” has nothing to do with the differing conditions; the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race. More

Cuomo to the 1 percent: here's a tax cut for Christmas

Original Reporting | By Craig Gurian | Taxes

If you have an adjusted gross income of $1.8 million, for example, and file a joint tax return, New York's Andrew Cuomo has engineered annual tax savings for you of $27,280 in future years. More

RD to immigration advocates: are there any limits?

Original Reporting | By Craig Gurian | Immigration

Offered the opportunity to describe in extended interviews how immigration to the United States should ideally be regulated, representatives of three prominent pro-immigration organizations painted a broad picture of a much-liberalized ongoing system (above and beyond a "road to legalization"), but did not set forth any concrete limitations to apply. More

Open spaces, closed files

Original Reporting | By Abby Ferla, By Craig Gurian | NYC, Role of government

Wouldn't facility by facility information on operating costs, staffing, and level of use help New York City's Parks Department and outside observers assess whether there is equity in funding between and among parks as well as the related question of whether and to what extent to rely on private as opposed to public funding? Good luck getting the data. More

FDR to Congress: don’t mess with the payroll tax

Original Reporting | By Mike Alberti | Economy, Taxes

In the ongoing negotiations on Capitol Hill over whether to extend and expand the payroll tax cut for another year, some advocates worry that doing so would undermine President Franklin Roosevelt’s original intention: to fund the program through a dedicated stream of revenues in order to make it difficult for lawmakers to dismantle Social Security in future years. They worry that, by allowing payroll taxes to be used for purposes other than Social Security, Democrats are opening the door to Republican efforts to reduce the payroll tax permanently — and to cut benefits to conform with the reduced revenues. More

ERA: historical curiosity or needed weapon against bias today?

Original Reporting | By Abby Ferla | Gender equity

No, the Constitution still doesn't say that equality of rights shall not be denied by the U.S. or by any state on account of sex. Why advocates fought so hard in the 1970s and 1980s for an Equal Rights Amendment, and why some are still fighting to secure its ratification. More

Patients routinely treated disrespectfully?

Original Reporting | By Margaret Moslander | Health care

Remapping Debate's follow-up to our article on doctor-patient communication explores an additional aspect of everyday medical interactions: the ways in which "inconveniences" imposed on patients — commonly seen as "just the way things are" — actually cause psychological and emotional harm. Long wait times, rushed appointments, and the failure of doctors to be forthcoming with important information lead patients to feel devalued, overlooked, frustrated, and "disrespected. More

The hidden toll of underemployment

Original Reporting | By Mike Alberti | Economy, Employment, Labor

While the economic effects of underemployment — as distinct from unemployment — have long been studied, far less attention has been paid to the psychological consequences. The research that does exist, however, is not encouraging. Psychologists have found that underemployment is associated with increased incidence of depression, less job satisfaction, lower self-esteem, and that it can also result in deep-seated, persistent feelings of shame. Nevertheless, no large-scale government effort to assess the psychological implications of mass underemployment has been undertaken, even though the number of underemployed workers exceeds 10 million. “Unemployment is an emergency,” said Carl Van Horn, professor of public policy at Rutgers University. “Underemployment is a crisis.” More

Original Reporting

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