Livelihood | Unexpected Leisure

May 20, 2013September 4, 2018

Is Starting a Small Business a Cure for Unemployment?

Not everyone is an entrepreneur. This should be obvious. If you've been unemployed for a long time, chances are you have a growing distrust of the market's ability to reward hard work and initiative. This is also known as "perspective." Read more [...]

March 23, 2013May 6, 2013

Laid Off: Four Years and Counting

I really didn't expect a layoff. The University President and the CFO broke the news me just before the weekly executive meeting I normally attended. I told them I wouldn't be at that meeting; "I have work to do." I immediately went back to my office and started looking for my next job. Read more [...]

February 3, 2013February 3, 2013

What India Taught Me About How to End Hunger

Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but by a scarcity of democracy. Read more [...]

January 28, 2013January 28, 2013

A Reassessment

Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is a well-known sign of insanity. It will also drive a sane person to madness. I must conserve what sanity I have left. Read more [...]

July 29, 2012May 6, 2013

On the Duty of Fiscal Disobedience

OWS stated implicitly and explicitly that Washington, DC though full of sound and fury, signifies nothing. The nationâ€™s true political center of gravity is no longer Washington, but Wall Street. Read more [...]

May 17, 2012

TED Talk: Why Income Inequality Hurts Society

After so many years of an increasing gulf between rich and poor, it should be obvious to even marginally objective observers that such a gap has very negative consequences. Read more [...]

December 16, 2011

What the State of Our Health Care System Means to the Unemployed

When you lose your job, you have to replace lost resources by improvising. Many options exist for essentials such as food and shelter. Health care is different. In many situations, no amount of cleverness or commitment to self-sufficiency will see you through. Read more [...]

November 15, 2011

Zuccotti Park and the Incompetence of Violence

You would think that by now, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD would have learned the lessons from Spain and Egypt and Tunisia and Wisconsin, that repression only causes certain kinds of ideas to flourish. OWS is one of those ideas, and it will continue to grow. Read more [...]

October 23, 2011

The True Message of Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is telling the powers that be, "We can make a better society than you can, and here's how to do it!" Read more [...]

October 4, 2011

The Other Price of Foreclosures

A growing body of research shows that foreclosure itself harms the health of families and communities. In our 2008 survey of 250 people undergoing foreclosure in the Philadelphia area, 32 percent reported missing doctorâ€™s appointments and 48 percent said they let prescriptions go unfilled, significantly higher rates than others in their community. Read more [...]