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Cost of living

Brits Hit The Streets As Anger Over Cost Of Living And P&O Sacking Erupts

April 2, 2022 Morning Star. , , ,
Thousands of protesters will take to the streets today to vent their anger at the soaring cost of living and the brutal sacking of 800 P&O workers. The protests come as the Insolvency Service launches criminal and civil investigations into P&O’s behavior. The People’s Assembly, a national forum campaigning against austerity since 2013, has organized demonstrations across Britain in protest at the spiraling cost-of-living crisis. In London, protesters will gather outside Downing Street from 2pm. Demonstrations will also be held in Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Doncaster, Glasgow, Hanley, Hull, Ipswich, Lancaster, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Preston, Redcar, Sheffield and Southampton.

“Everyone Deserves A Cost-Of-Living Adjustment”: Interview With UCSC Striker Yulia Gilich

March 30, 2020 Jenn Schreiter, Unicorn Riot , , , , ,
Santa Cruz, CA – Graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) at the University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC) are fighting for a livable wage. A year of unsuccessful attempts to encourage their employer to re-negotiate a fairer contract, including a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to their pay, has escalated into a full labor strike. In turn, dozens of workers have been fired by the university in retaliation for the Pay Us More UCSC campaign.

The American Savings Crisis, Explained

December 17, 2017 Jeff Spross , , ,
Americans are terrible at saving money. Since the 1970s, our personal savings rate has fallen from 12 percent to just 3 percent today. Almost half of all households don't have enough money socked away to meet a $400 emergency. At least one-third of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. It's easy to blame this on failings of individual discipline, and plenty of people do. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently griped about Americans who "are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it's on booze or women or movies." And there's a whole cottage industry of personal finance scolds insisting that everyone could save massive amounts if they just had the willpower.

The History Of Putting A Price On Everything

December 2, 2017 Adam Gaffney, newrepublic.com , ,
By Adam Gaffney for New Republic - In 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control, some 33,091 people died as a result of an opioid overdose. The final 2016 figure, there is little doubt, will be even higher. Last year, researchers at the CDC put the “societal” cost of the opioid epidemic at $78.5 billion for 2013. Some of that figure includes spending on healthcare and on criminal justice related to the trade in opioids. But much of the $78.5 billion represents something less tangible: “lost productivity.” The researchers estimated that the lost future economic output of Americans affected by the epidemic—those who were disabled by opioid dependence, who died prematurely, or were incarcerated—amounted to $41.9 billion a year. And in November, the White House made headlines by putting an even bigger price tag—$504 billion—on the opioid epidemic, by adding to this a dollar value for each life lost, the so-called “value of a statistical life.” The idea of putting a price on health—or life and death—may seem intuitive, even natural, in an age in which the human body is commonly conceived as a sort of investment. “When I’m at a country club or a party and people ask me what I do, I say I’m an asset manager,” said one concierge physician (annual fee: $40,000 and up) whose practice was recently profiled in the New York Times. “When they ask what asset, I point to their body.”

Health Care Costs Rise By Most In 32 Years

September 23, 2016 Patrick Gillespie, www.money.cnn.com ,
By Patrick Gillespie for CNN - Prices for medicine, doctor appointments and health insurance rose the most last month since 1984. The price increases come amid a broader debate about climbing health care costs and high premiums for Obamacare coverage. A recent report by Kaiser/HRET Employer Health Benefits forecasts that the average family health care plan will cost $18,142, up 3.4% from 2015. That's faster than wage growth in America.

In Seattle, The Rent Is Too Damn High

June 5, 2015 Katie Herzog, www.grist.org , , ,
By Katie Herzog in Grist - The median home price in Seattle is now $535,000, a 19 percent increase since March 2014, and the market is so competitive that bidding wars are common. “I would say about 50 percent of homes are going over the asking price in the first week, and 16 percent are cash offers,” says longtime Seattle real estate agent Penny Bolton. “I just had a client who sold her house for a million-five. She paid $30,000 for it in the late ’70s, early ’80s.” With numbers like that, it’s a good time to be a seller in Seattle. A buyer? Not so much. When asked what the market is like for his clients, realtor Christian Nossum says, “Just today I had a buyer win a situation where there were 33 other offers. They were lucky No. 34 and they had to pay over $150,000 more than the asking price. If that doesn’t show how crazy the market is, I don’t know what does.”
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