Child poverty: intergenerational or not, still not a mystery

Once again: How much would you pay to stop having to listen to rich people tell poor people how to run their families?* In 2023, child poverty in the United States was a $52 billion problem. Is that a lot? No, it’s not. Below, I show we can pay for it with a tax of…

That one gender-based occupational comparison that sticks in my craw

The one chilling reason why nursing aides earn less than driver/sales workers.

Inequality work product: Visualizing unequal

I'm working on the fourth edition of The Family, and since it's an "accessible, data-driven introduction to contemporary sociological thinking on families," I figured I'd share a few figures I worked on for the chapter on social class and poverty. 1. Parents' education and educational attainment. The General Social Survey asks people what their parents'…

Inequality heatmaps: marriage and working from home

Heatmaps showing different kinds of inequality, with code.

Comment on pandemic family plans

In light of disparate impacts of COVID-19 itself and the social and economic fallout of the pandemic, research should concentrate on widening inequalities in fertility and family well-being, and their relationship to health disparities.

Santa’s magic, children’s wisdom, and inequality (a timeless holiday classic essay!)

Santa is harmless fun and existential comfort-food. So, consider this an attempted joyicide.

Measuring inequality, and what the Gini index does (video)

I produced a short video on measuring inequality, focusing on the construction of the Gini index, the trend in US family inequality, and an example of using it to measure world inequality.

Families, inequality, and sociology in pandemic times (video)

If you asked me what's happening with families, and inequality, in the pandemic times, and I talked for 12 minutes.

Pandemic path dependence and the future

An hour of my opinions about what's happening and what might happen next.

Sibship size and educational attainment update

I just read this Demography paper by Benjamin G. Gibbs, Joseph Workman, and Douglas B. Downey for my work on the new edition of The Family (don't hold your breath, but I'm working on it). It seeks to modify the traditional "resource dilution" model of explaining why children with more siblings end up with lower educational attainment,…