Author: TheConversation

By Felix Koenig, Assistant Professor of Economics, Carnegie Mellon University The US$1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that the House of Representatives passed included a gradual increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025. While its chances in the Senate appear slim, the proposal has brought national attention to the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Supporters argue a higher minimum wage would translate into higher incomes for millions of low-wage employees, such as restaurant waiters, retail salespeople and child care workers, and thereby lift a lot of people out of poverty....

By Caitlin Caspi, Professor of Public Health, University of Connecticut Among the many striking images from the pandemic is an aerial photo showing cars in seemingly endless rows lined up at a food bank. A jarring awareness of food insecurity in the U.S. has accompanied the health and financial concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, with record numbers of people visiting food banks for the first time. Even those not immediately in need were made increasingly aware of food insecurity in 2020, amid conversations not only of the economic fallout of the coronavirus, but also how structural racism...

By David Himmelgreen, Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida; and Jacquelyn Heuer, Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology and Public Health Education, University of South Florida Food banks, nonprofits that collect and distribute food to hunger relief organizations, have played an essential role in the distribution of emergency food relief throughout the United States for more than 50 years. They have been more visible than ever before during the pandemic, with many organizing large drive-through pantries, where people line up in vehicles to receive boxes of food from mask-clad staff and volunteers. This uptick in demand for their services is...

By Adam Seagrave, Associate Professor of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University One of the most under-appreciated figures in the nation’s history, John Brown, has been introduced to Americans by the recent Showtime series “The Good Lord Bird,” based on the James McBride novel of the same name. Too often dismissed as a failed zealot, Brown was an unconventional anti-slavery leader who blazed a trail that Abraham Lincoln would follow just a few years later. Commentators then and now are more likely to see differences between Lincoln’s and Brown’s approaches to civic leadership. Lincoln was cautious...