Issues

In the United States, in particular, parents contribute sizable material and emotional support through their children's late twenties and into their early thirties. Such flows are to be expected in more privileged families, but what is now striking are the significant flows — and associated strains — in middle-class families at a time when families themselves have become increasingly stressed or fractured. more »

Many say that men get more opportunities than equally qualified women for jobs that pay well and that life is generally better for men than it is for women in their countries. This is especially so in some of the wealthier nations surveyed. more »

It was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who served on the US Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932 who held up freedom of thought as one of the prime protections offered to citizens in the US Constitution. He explained that he believed that this protection was most valuable "not free thought for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought that we hate." more »

It seems that the human inability to grasp and execute the complex steps of a deepwater drilling procedure led to the tragic outcome. A separate discussion is warranted of an almost universal lack of preparedness by the industry and government to deal with the aftermath of this blowout. more »