News About Inequality - November 2008

'I'm Not Post-Racial'

• The Washington Post, November 30, 2008
  For 18 months, I traveled the country interviewing voters. Not one of them uttered the word. It's not a word my friends or I ever use, so I probably heard it first on cable news or read it in a newspaper. And now everybody's throwing it around more than ever.

---

'Going Off to College for Less (Passport Required)'

• The New York Times, November 30, 2008
  With higher education fast becoming a global commodity, universities worldwide - many of them in Canada and England - are competing for the same pool of affluent, well-qualified students, and more American students are heading overseas not just for a semester abroad, but for their full degree program.

---

'Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority'

• The New York Times, November 29, 2008
  We now know that blacks probably didn't tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why?

---

'Health and Wealth'

• The Economist, November 20, 2008
  Improved health does not always make countries richer.

---

'A Gleam Among the Ruins'

• The Economist, November 20, 2008
  After years of civil war, three new factors may bring hope to Africa's biggest country.

---

'Jobless Claims Reach a 16 Year High'

• The New York Times, November 20, 2008
  New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market.

---

'The End of the Affair'

• The Economist, November 20, 2008
  America's return to thrift presages a long and deep recession.

---

'The Great Depression, Not So Far Away'

• The Washington Post, November 16, 2008
  Senior Citizens Describe The Crash, the Struggles, The Recovery -- and The Parallels to Today

---

'Across U.S., Big Rallies for Same-Sex Marriage'

• The New York Times, November 15, 2008
  In one of the nation's largest displays of support for gay rights, tens of thousands of people in cities across the country turned out in support of same-sex marriage on Saturday, lending their voices to an issue that many gay men and lesbians consider a critical step to full equality.

---

'Employers Offer Workers Fewer Health Care Plans'

• The New York Times, November 15, 2008
  It's the annual "open enrollment" season in corporate America, when employees choose their medical plans for the coming year. But this time, even if they are fortunate enough to have a job at a company that still offers health benefits, many workers are finding that the buffet of options has been trimmed to a very short menu.

---

'When It Really Counts, Qualifications Trump Race'

• The New York Times, November 15, 2008
  While campaigning in western Pennsylvania last month, Barack Obama was asked whether racial bias might hurt his campaign. 'What I've found is that people here, they don't care what color you are,' Mr. Obama told a Pittsburgh television reporter. 'What they're trying to figure out is, who can deliver? It's just like the Pittsburgh Steelers. They don't care what color you are, they want to make sure you can make the plays.'

---

'Women Gain in Education but Not Power, Study Finds'

• The New York Times, November 12, 2008
  GENEVA (Reuters). Women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, though their access to education and health care is nearly equal, the World Economic Forum reports. In its 2008 Global Gender Gap report, the forum, a Swiss research organization, ranked Norway, Finland and Sweden as the countries that have the most equality of the sexes, and Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen as having the least.

---

'Up the Ladder? How Dated, How Linear'

• The New York Times, November 8, 2008
  DID you ever think that something was one way for the longest time, and then one day realize that it was no longer that way? That is what is happening in corporate America.

---

'Working Poor and Young Hit Hard in Downturn'

• The New York Times, November 8, 2008
  From the fall of 2007 to this October, the share of 16- to 19-year-olds working fell by 8 percent, the largest decline of any age group, and the outlook for youths and low-skilled workers in coming months is bleak, economists say, with the industries most apt to employ them, like home-building and retail sales, taking steep dives.