Roughly half of American workers would make their money in the “gig” economy if they had their way, a new survey suggests. And already, about 60 million Americans do. Or, maybe it’s only a few hundred thousand people who are gig workers now. It all depends on how you count. [Keep reading]
I just can’t let this go by without comment. Warren Buffett seemed heroic this week when he released his federal tax bill after Donald Trump called him out in the Sunday night presidential debate. “No Donald, I’m not like you,” he was saying, “I pay federal taxes.” In fact, Buffett [Keep reading]
Want a robot-safe job? Start getting good at things machines are bad at. Fast. As I was telling you the other day in part 1, robots are gainin on us fast. I’m really worried about how this is going to impact our society (see ‘A billion useless people.’) And the [Keep reading]
Let’s talk about a real issue facing America, shall we? Donald Trump said in the debate last night that he “will give economics to people.” I wish he did; we could all use some economics. So I’m going to give you some. Robots are coming for our jobs, and gaining on [Keep reading]
What do you do when you are a Midwestern town of about 12,000 people and your main employer pulls out, taking 10,000 jobs with it? You circle the wagons, call home the kids, embrace change, and trade in 20th Century industries for 21st Century industries. And hope for good luck. [Keep reading]
If young families in New England can’t find a starter home to buy, she might be partly to blame. As a small-time real estate investor, she swoops in and buys would-be starter homes before families can and turns them into rentals. She says she feels badly about it … but [Keep reading]
Go on vacation. Your heart needs it. Really. In the long list of studies I’ve shared extolling the virtue of holidays and warning about overwork, this one is the most important: A massive study published last year showed that employees who put in more overtime had much higher likelihood of heart [Keep reading]
SOMEWHERE BEAUTIFUL BETWEEN NEW YORK AND SEATTLE — America, we need to talk. And not on Facebook. I mean, really talk. I’ll have many thoughts to share from this summer’s cross-country road trip (#RoadTrip201^), but one is screaming at me so loud I have to spit it out immediately. While [Keep reading]
Americans are terrible at taking vacations, and that’s a shame, because they aren’t helping their companies or themselves. People are just less productive in summer, for a whole host of reasons. So you might as well hang out at the beach anyway. Americans wasted a record-setting 658 million vacation days [Keep reading]
We’ve written a lot recently about the disappearing starter home. A combination of rising prices, aggressive investors, and flat incomes are turning America into a nation of renters … and making things very hard on young people just starting out. But there are still communities where plenty of starter homes [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan