Dollars & Sense articles from January 1998

Dollars & Sense archives from January 1998

Revolution on the airwaves. (federal restrictions on independent radio stations)
January 1, 1998... Just when you thought access to the media is lost for good to the likes of Time Warner and Disney, activists in the Bay Area are taking the airwaves back. By means of micropowered radio, stations like Free Radio Berkeley (104.1 FM), San Francisco...

Shifting racial tides in Houston.
January 1, 1998... The shining buckle of the Sunbelt, Houston, Texas, has somehow emerged as a leader in support of affirmative action. In an early November election, 55% of voters saved an affirmative action program in city business by defeating a proposition to...

Cooperating kids (and parents too). (cooperative child care)
January 1, 1998... Dustin Leaning, age 5, says one of his earliest memories is making cat and dog masks with Elias, Maya, and Anna. They are the other kids in his childcare coop. "Now we are all at different schools, but we still see each other all the time," says...

Care about our baby? Then buy, buy, buy. (consumerism and child care)
January 1, 1998... Squeezed by the demands of work and family life, parents are the perfect targets for baby supply and toy manufacturers who push their products as solutions to parenting dilemmas. After all, we live in a society whose stress on intense...

Watch out for 'family friendly' policies.
January 1, 1998... What could be nicer, better, or healthier than employers adopting policies that give employees the resources, time and flexibility to take care of their families? What could be wrong with that?What grinch could object? The best reply to these...

It takes a community. (social implications of day care)
January 1, 1998... Not too long ago, my neighbor, Nikki, was entertaining a visitor from Peru. As they strolled along the streets of New York City, the visitor looked puzzled. "Where," she asked Nikki, "are all the children?" Nikki told me this story as I was...

How people spend their money.
January 1, 1998... SOCIALLY-DETERMINED NEEDS IN AMERICA "I feel like I'm always walking on crates, waiting for the other shoe to fall. I've been able to make it, but just by the skin of my teeth," says Martha, a 50 year-old single mother in Boston whose daughter...

Behind the scenes at a 'family friendly' workplace.
January 1, 1998... Are U.S. businesses becoming "friendlier" to families? For all of the hoopla, you might think "family friendly" work arrangements are widespread. Subsidies for child or elder care, the possibility of taking time off from work to deal with family...

Part-time and temporary work: flexibility for whom?
January 1, 1998... When 185,000 Teamsters at United Parcel Service walked out on strike last August, their top demand was reversing UPS's shift toward a part-time and contracted-out workforce. "UPS stands for Unfair Part-time Servitude," yelled Massachusetts...

The ethics of work.
January 1, 1998... "Unbelievable!" I thought upon hearing that the Massachusetts Supreme Court recently sided with a company that fired a single mother for refusing to work more overtime - even though she had been putting in long hours for many weeks. This...

It's about time; will Europe solve the work/family dilemma? (includes related article on families in Germany and France)
January 1, 1998... U.S. workers often gaze longingly at labor policies enacted across the Atlantic, especially in Sweden, a democratic socialist mecca. But all 15 European Union countries, including Sweden, offer a cautionary tale for those hoping paid family leave...

City families face housing squeeze.
January 1, 1998... A New York Times headline proclaims, "The bidding wars are back." Home prices and sales are up in most metropolitan areas - even on a "redeveloped" street in the South Bronx, where one-family homes are selling for an astonishing $185,000. In many...

Ask Dr. Dollar. (financial crisis in Asia in 1997)
January 1, 1998... Dear Dr. Dollar: What is going on with the "Asian Crisis" talked about so much these days? Even though Thailand and Malaysia seem to be hardest hit, how does it affect other Far-East markets? - Ross Tippit (via email) So how did the...

Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work.
January 1, 1998... Early in her new book, Time Bind, Arlie Hochschild makes a startling suggestion. Overworked parents, far from being coerced or threatened by employers, might actually choose to work long hours in order to escape the emotional stresses of home...

Comp time versus overtime; the dangers of changing the Fair Labor Standards Act.
January 1, 1998... Lisa M. is a legal secretary at a law firm in California. She regularly stays late to finish up work. Her employer promises she can get comp time for the extra hours she puts in. Problem is, the company always seems "too busy" to let her use it....