For most Americans, life expectancy continues to rise—but not for uneducated white women. They have lost five years, and no one knows why.
Monica Potts
Monica Potts is a former senior writer at The American Prospect. She is working on a book about low-income women in her rural Arkansas hometown. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York, Vogue.com, The Daily Beast, The Trace, and Democracy.
Posted inEconomic Policy
When Giving It the Old College Try Fails
Almost half of Americans drop out of college and are left with debt. Is it time for a bigger investment in vocational training for young people?
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Paying It Forward on Student Debt
A new idea for making college affordable is attracting supporters—and detractors—in state capitals across the nation.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Least We Could Pay
What efforts to raise the minimum wage would and wouldn’t accomplish.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Food Stamp-Out
House Republicans’ newest tactic to dilute one of the most successful social welfare programs in the country’s history.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Kansas Bleeds the Middle Class
Are we on our way to becoming a low-wage nation? Recent trends in suburban poverty indicate that Americans are facing an uphill battle to secure well-paying jobs.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Life in Tornado Alley
What it’s like growing up in the shadow of nature’s fury.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Food Stamps Get Licked by Cuts
Will go hungry for deficit reduction
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Why Kids Still Can’t Have It All
Austerity’s damaging effects on child care
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Runaways
As suburban homelessness increases, some teenagers are forced to make it on their own.