SWC’s Fast Five
Back-to-the-office worries shift, formal fashion fades, seatbelts were a precursor of the present individual v. public interest furor and we’re getting poor again but at least most of us will be warm(er) this winter.
So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:
1 Millennials more concerned than baby boomers about being back in a physical workplace.
According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index, the main concern was and continues to be exposure to others. Millennials working back onsite are the most concerned overall, while baby boomers and Gen Z tend to be the least concerned.
2 Fate of formal fashion hangs by a thread. “My clients are in PJs.”
From farmers to fabric mills to fashion houses, a seismic shift in behavior is having profound repercussions across the supply chain for suits and formal wear, upending a sartorial sector spanning every continent.
3 Echoes of the American seatbelt wars.
The fight over U.S. seatbelt laws was fraught with trying to strike a balance between individual and public interests. Alberto Giubilini, a public health ethics scholar, noted that seatbelts and helmets are mostly meant to protect an individual, while vaccinations and face masks are also intended to prevent harm from spreading to others.
4 It looked better for a while but U.S. poverty rate rises as aid winds down.
As of September, the poverty rate stood at 16.7 percent up from 15.3 percent in February and 14.3 percent in May, with higher rates among children and minorities, according to Columbia University researchers. The increase is in line with rising poverty rates around the world due to the pandemic. The World Bank this month warned that extreme poverty was set to rise for the first time in more than two decades.
5 Baby, it’s not cold outside.
Two-thirds of the United States should get a warmer than normal winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted. Only Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas and northwestern Minnesota, will get a colder than normal winter, forecasters said.
