Saturday, February 15, 2014

Pew Research Center: Among Married American Couples, Wives who are More Highly Educated than their Husbands now Outnumber those Couples in which Husbands Possess More Education than their Wives


Wendy Wang's article at Pew Research Center is linked below.

Among Married Couples, Wives with More Education than Husbands now a Larger Cohort than the Opposite

"It used to be more common for a husband to have more education than his wife in America. But now, for the first time since Pew Research has tracked this trend over the past 50 years, the share of couples in which the wife is the one “marrying down” educationally is higher than those in which the husband has more education.
Among married women in 2012, 21% had spouses who were less educated than they were—a threefold increase from 1960, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.
The share of couples where the husband’s education exceeds his wife’s increased steadily from 1960 to 1990, but has fallen since then to 20% in 2012."
---Wendy Wang, Pew Research Center

Monday, February 10, 2014

New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait: Right-Wingers Demonizing Obamacare as the New Welfare


Jonathan Chait's article at New York Magazine is linked below.

Jonathan Chait: Obamacare is not the old "Aid to Families with Dependent Children" Program

"But Ryan is completely wrong about the class of people facing this reduced-work incentive. It’s not workers who are set to “begin working” and “get on the ladder of life” who face the Obamacare phase-out. That hits much higher up the income ladder — $94,000 a year for a family of four. A person facing this subsidy cutoff may work fewer hours, or even quit altogether, but he or she would be living off his or her own savings or a spouse's income. There's no Obamacare "dole," in the sense of income that substitutes for work, unless conservatives imagine Medicaid patients clothing themselves in free hospital gowns and feeding their children all the waiting room lollipops they can eat."

---Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine 


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Pew Research Center: In 2012, Modest Uptick in U.S. Marriages Among the College-Educated


The Pew Research Center article is linked below.

Pew Research Center: Some Rebound in New Marriages Among College-Educated

"But a closer look at the demographic patterns reveals some interesting insights about who is getting married. From 2011 to 2012, the total number of newly married adults increased by 113,000 (from 4.21 million to 4.32 million).  Examining the newlyweds by education level, the number of newly married adults with at least a bachelor’s degree increased by 98,000 from 2011 to 2012.  Thus, almost the entire increase in new marriages (87%) from 2011 to 2012 is accounted for by the college-educated."
---Richard Fry, Pew Research Center

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Salon's Simon Maloy: Coca-Cola's Multi-Language Super Bowl Ad Drew Out the Nativist Xenophobes


Simon Maloy's column at Salon is linked below.

Simon Maloy: The Backlash Against the Coca-Cola Super Bowl Ad

"Coca-Cola’s ad was a nod to a long-standing truth about America: A country of such broad ethnic diversity is going to have whole communities that speak languages other than English. From the barrios of Los Angeles to the tenement blocks of turn-of-the-century New York to the Gullah region of the antebellum South, there have always been American communities where standard English wasn’t spoken at home. In my own family it’s not uncommon to hear conversations in English, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese. This isn’t a threat to American culture. It is American culture.
But for the conservative pundits and 'English first' nativists, the simple act of recognizing other heritages somehow detracts from their own. This is the culture war, and it’s a zero-sum fight. In the eyes of the critics, Coke’s acknowledgment that English does not command 100 percent of the linguistic market was giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It’s a blatant and nasty appeal to cultural resentment and xenophobia."
---Simon Maloy, Salon 

Monday, February 3, 2014

Salon's Joan Walsh: Fox News is the Avant-Garde of White Grievance and Backlash


Joan Walsh's column at Salon is linked below.

Joan Walsh: Fox News, a Channel for White Grievance

"Thanks in large measure to Roger Ailes, we live in a country now where a carnival barker with an ugly comb-over can make the duly elected president show him his papers, and an angry mediocrity like O’Reilly can condescend to an accomplished black man who is in fact his moral and intellectual superior.
Maybe more important, day to day Fox provides a steady infusion of toxic lies into our political bloodstream, from tales about 'victims' of Obamacare who could in fact be helped by it, to fantasies of neglect and incompetence at Benghazi that in fact shame the memory of the men who died there. Politically, we are all the sicker for it.
So if progressives want to believe that Fox is history because its viewers are getting old and its hosts are getting crazier, that’s their choice. I was always told dying animals can be the most dangerous."
---Joan Walsh, Salon 

Sunday, February 2, 2014

The New York Times: American Abortion Rate Falling


The article in The New York Times is linked below.

The New York Times: Significant Decline in U.S. Abortions Since 2008

Associated Press: The U.S. Abortion Rate Has Declined Significantly Since 1981


The Associated Press article posted at Politico article is linked below.

Associated Press: U.S. Abortion Rate Has Declined to a Nearly 40 Year Low

"According to the report, the abortion rate dropped to 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 2011, well below the peak of 29.3 in 1981 and the lowest since a rate of 16.3 in 1973."

---Associated Press, article posted at Politico.com