The shift to part-time workers means that focusing exclusively on hourly pay can be misleading. Walmart, for example, paid frontline hourly employees an average of $17.50 as of last month and recently announced plans to raise that to more than $18 an hour. Given that just a few years ago, progressives were animated by the Fight for $15 movement, these numbers can seem encouraging. The Bloomberg columnist Conor Sen wrote on social media last year that “Walmart’s probably a better employer at this point than most child care providers and a lot of the jobs in higher ed.”
The problem is that most Walmart employees don’t make $36,400, the annualized equivalent of $17.50 an hour at 40 hours a week. Last year, the median Walmart worker made 25 percent less than that, $27,326 — equivalent to an average of 30 hours a week. And that’s the median; many Walmart workers worked less than that.
Likewise, at Target, where pay starts at $15 an hour, the median employee makes not $31,200, the annualized full-time equivalent, but $25,993. The median employee of TJX (owner of such stores as TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods) makes $13,884 a year; the median Kohl’s employee makes $12,819.
Those numbers, though low, are nevertheless higher than median pay at Starbucks, a company known for its generous benefits. To be eligible for those benefits, however, an employee must work at least 20 hours a week. At $15 an hour — the rate Starbucks said it was raising barista pay to in 2022 — 20 hours a week would amount to $15,600 a year. But in 2022 the median Starbucks worker made $12,254 a year, which is lower than the federal poverty level for a single person.

The reason that starvation in utero is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes in later life is that the fetus prepares for its likely adult environment which is not encountered (thrifty phenotype). These epigenetic changes are due to increased gene activity and expression rather than by starvation induced changes in the DNA sequence.5

Therefore, after 33 years, I believe it is time to reinterpret Crawford’s data and conclude that the large increases in death from diabetes during nineteenth century in Ireland was due to the in utero effects of starvation during the Irish Potato Famine and not due to increases in the intake of fat and sugar.

More wealth = better health

Surprising no one who has ever listened to a fat, Black or brown, or chronically ill person:

Researchers who study Type 2 diabetes have reached a stark conclusion: There is no device, no drug powerful enough to counter the effects of poverty, pollution, stress, a broken food system, cities that are hard to navigate on foot and inequitable access to health care, particularly in minority communities.

Medicaid has saved the government more than its original cost and saved more than 10 million quality adjusted life years.

Previously, previously, previously.

Almost 40% of teachers’ recommended English A-level grades were downgraded this year, with final results decided by algorithm following the cancellation of exams. But not all students fared equally. Poorer students and those studying at comprehensive schools are among those more likely to have received lower grades based on algorithmically assigned results.

“Hispanic Texans make up about 40% of the state’s population but 48% of the state’s 5,952 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, according to Department of State Health Services data.

In the Houston region, where COVID-19 hospitalizations surged in June before beginning to decline in recent days, data released by the Harris County health department showed a disproportionate share of those requiring hospital care — as high as 65% of newly hospitalized patients during some weeks in June — were Hispanic, despite the fact they are 44% of the population.

At Memorial Hermann Health System, one of the Houston region’s largest hospital chains, an analysis of emergency room visits shows that far more Hispanics in their 20s, 30s and 40s have showed up at its hospitals with COVID-19 compared with other ethnicities, an indication that the virus is spreading widely among young Hispanic residents and that they may be waiting until they are sicker to seek care, officials said.

Meanwhile, as the Houston Fire Department reports record numbers of patients dying abruptly at home this summer before paramedics can even reach them, Harris County medical examiner data shows that more than two-thirds of those who’ve died at home from confirmed coronavirus infections have been Hispanic.

There are numerous reasons for these disparities, experts say. Hispanic residents are more likely to work in service jobs or live in multigenerational households that make social distancing difficult. They are less likely to have health insurance. And they are more likely to have health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure, leaving them more vulnerable to serious illness.”

“The spirit of the Peace Mission Movement provided inspiration to a ministry that I established in 2015 called the Black Church Food Security Network. Launched in the midst of the Baltimore Uprising, which erupted after the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police, we strategically link Black Churches and Black Farmers to create a Black-led food system rooted in justice and communal self-determination. We do this by helping congregations to start gardens on their land and by organizing miniature farmers markets inside churches on days when they worship. The markets feature Black farmers and food business owners. In addition to the garden and markets, we are preparing to start delivering produce boxes for subscription from Black farmers later this Fall.”

In the decade since the economic crisis, the number of billionaires has doubled.

Crowdfunding saves lives, but only if you have a big social network to begin with.