Old-Age Poverty

It is no coincidence that folk singer, songwriter and social activist Pete Seeger (1919-2014) turns up as one of the important voices on the recently released Smithsonian Folkways box set The Social Power of Music (2019). Seeger, one of the towering figures o…

The state of Washington has passed the Long-Term Health Care Act, a first-in-the-nation law that will establish funds that workers can access when they need long-term care. It's a start toward dealing with the problems faced by families of the elderly, and es…

This year the Legislature passed bills that will lower the cost of health care for people on Obamacare, increase transparency in drug pricing, ensure equal reproductive health care access to LGBTQ people, create a new long-term care system, and possibly put t…

The excited cleaner at Royal Perth Hospital could barely speak after Bill Shorten stopped to greet her on his way to another campaign policy announcement.  Instead she shook her head and waved her hands as the Leader of the Opposition continued along the cor…

Steve Braunias looks into the killing of New Zealand schoolteacher Blair Peach on the 40th anniversary of his death at an anti-racism protest in London. English rain, constant, sometimes heavy, always miserable, falling all day long on that grey, bleak Monda…

This is the second of a series of posts in which I'm trying to build a framework to evaluate aging research. Previous post: A general framework for evaluating aging research. Part 1: reasoning with Longevity Escape Velocity. The first part of this post will …

According to the latest research from the Menzies School of Health Research, by the end of 2017 there were 355 patients on dialysis in Alice Springs, or one in every 66 people. Each year the Northern Territory treats 120 new patients. "I have been involved w…

2019 Exile: Rejecting America and Finding the WorldBelén FernándezOR Books. In the interests of full disclosure, I confess at the outset that Belén Fernández is a friend of mine. If she wasnt, Id wish she was after reading this book. Not that shes a raconteu…

Yves here. This post highlights an ugly fact: Medicare, while better for most people than crapified employer health plans and quite a few Obamacare policies, is not all that hot by world standards due to the high cost of American healthcare. One big problem i…

I’ve been reading today To Begin Where I Am, selected essays of the Polish poet and thinker Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004). Here is a passage from “If Only This Could Be Said,” in which Milosz attempts to articulate his religious beliefs. He was a liberal intelle…