Negligent builders and developers might be responsible for hidden peril underneath Florida: ‘Some shady folks still used them’
Rick Kazmer – October 23, 2023
Recently released government data about the Sunshine State could provide a new moniker for Florida — the Lead Pipe State.
That’s because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that Florida has more lead pipes in its water systems — 1.16 million of them — than any other state, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Florida highlights a national problem, as some 9.2 million lead pipes carry drinking water to households around the country, the Times reports. It’s a concern that has lingered for decades with severe health implications.
As a result, the government plans to pump billions of dollars into lead-pipe-heavy states to tackle the problem.
“Every community deserves access to safe, clean drinking water,” EPA administrator Michael Regan told the Tampa Bay Times.
Why are lead pipes dangerous?
Drinking water contaminated with lead can cause heart problems, lower IQ rates among children, and anemia, among a list of other serious health problems, according to the EPA.
Lead was spotlighted in 2014 during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. Lead leached into the water supply, causing severe health problems for the community.
Why are lead pipes still a concern?
Craig Pittman has been following the lead pipe story for Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news site. In a recent column, he said that the building and development industry is partially to blame for lingering lead concerns.
Despite increased regulations during the decades, he wrote, lead solder, flux, and pipes were still being used. The government ramped up regulations on lead pipes in 1986.
“Even after lead pipes were banned … some shady folks still used them, figuring they wouldn’t get caught because the evidence was literally buried out of sight. Meanwhile, a lot of lead pipes were already in use all around the country,” Pittman wrote.
He talked to civil engineer Alison Adams, who works for the utility company Tampa Bay Water. Adams said the lead is often found after the public utility hookup, because it’s in the materials the builders used.
“Lead pipes were used in the building industry, not in public water supply,” she said. “A utility’s responsibility ends at the meter to a home. Lead pipes were used between the meter and in homes or businesses, including schools, as a matter of construction.”
What’s being done about lead in the water?
The EPA highlighted the lead problem as part of a survey of 3,500 water systems around the country. The Times reported that about $625 billion is needed to upgrade the systems.
President Joe Biden has promised $15 billion to clear out all of the nation’s lead pipes, according to the Times.
It’s a lofty goal that will target states with the most lead. After Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have the most lead pipes, the Times reports.
How can I test for lead at home?
The EPA has a guide that outlines how to test your service line for lead. It includes details on the different faucets and fixtures that commonly contain the heavy metal.
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Premiums for family health insurance at work jump to nearly $24,000 this year
Tami Luhby, CNN – October 18, 2023
Natalia Gdovskaia/Moment RF/Getty Images
Workers and their employers are paying a lot more for job-based health insurance this year.
The annual cost of family health insurance coverage at work soared to an average of nearly $24,000 this year, according to KFF’s Employer Health Benefits Survey, released Wednesday. That’s up 7% from last year.
Employees are shelling out an average of $6,575 for their share of the premium, up almost $500, or close to 8%, from last year, the annual survey found. Their companies are footing the rest of the bill.
“We have a huge premium increase this year. There’s just no other way to cut it,” said Matthew Rae, who co-authored the survey. “There are lots of affordability challenges for employer coverage.”
For single coverage, the average annual premium rose to $8,435, also up 7% from last year. Workers are picking up just over $1,400 of the tab, about $75 more than last year.
Though large, the jump in premiums is roughly in line with the rise in wages and inflation since 2022, as well as over the past five years, according to KFF. This is different from in the early 2000s, when premiums were soaring by double digits, but inflation and wage growth were relatively muted.
The tight job market has prompted companies to avoid watering down their health insurance coverage since it can be a recruiting and retention tool.
Deductibles remained essentially flat this year, which may reflect employers’ concerns about how much workers have to shell out when they need medical care, KFF said. The average annual deductible is roughly $1,735 among workers who have a deductible for single coverage.
“Employers want to keep offering good benefits to keep good people,” said Rae.
Still, workers should prepare for premiums to take a bigger bite out of their paychecks in coming years. Nearly a quarter of companies said they will increase employees’ premium contributions in the next two years, KFF found.
Higher costs at smaller firms
Workers at smaller firms typically pay much more for coverage than their peers at companies with at least 200 workers.
KDC Mailing & Bindery had to contend with an overall premium increase of about 13% for this year, said Steve Van Loon, director of operations at the Tempe, Arizona, firm, which has 42 workers.
The company, which only started offering health benefits in 2019 to be more competitive, raised workers’ premiums by 3% but had to hike its prices by as much as 5% to help it afford the increased cost. KDC covered the rest.
Next year, the company likely won’t be able to be as generous to its staff, Van Loon said.
“Our profit margins do not allow us to absorb these costs,” he said. “We would be out of business.”
Limits on abortion coverage
Large employers with workers in more than one state may face challenges in offering abortion coverage after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion. Multiple states have adopted laws that prohibit or restrict abortion access.
One in 10 large firms with at least 200 employees said their largest plan does not cover legal abortions, KFF found. Another 18% said they only cover abortion under limited circumstances, such as rape, incest or health or life endangerment.
Nearly a third of large firms said they cover abortion in most or all circumstances, while 40% said they were unsure of their coverage policy, possibly because it was in flux or they were unaware of the details.
After the Supreme Court ruling, several companies said they would offer financial assistance to employees who had to travel to others states for abortions. Some 7% of large employers -— and 19% of companies with at least 5,000 workers — provide or plan to provide such reimbursement.
KFF did not ask these questions on abortion in prior surveys.
‘The cost of all these things is prohibitive’: Florida may no longer be the prized retirement haven it once was — here are 3 major reasons why you shouldn’t bask in the Sunshine State
Serah Louis – October 17, 2023
‘The cost of all these things is prohibitive’: Florida may no longer be the prized retirement haven it once was — here are 3 major reasons why you shouldn’t bask in the Sunshine State
Folks entering retirement and searching for the ideal place to settle down and relax in their golden years often look toward Florida. The state doesn’t tax income and boasts sunny weather along with gorgeous white beaches. It also offers plenty of amenities like golf, fishing and even bird-watching.
But surprise, surprise, Florida isn’t the top place to retire, ranking eighth in a Bankrate study published in August.
Despite ranking highly for its agreeable climate, the state fell behind when it came to affordability, crime and health care — all crucial factors as you plan where to live as you age.
Here are three big costs that might make you second guess picking the Sunshine State to settle for retirement.
Housing
Some retirees, especially those living on limited incomes, are being priced out of Florida, which has seen a surge in housing demand within the last few years.
In the meanwhile, other states like Iowa — which secured the top spot in the Bankrate study — come with much cheaper home prices. The average home in Iowa is valued at around $212,000, while in Florida it’s around $393,000, according to Zillow.
Residents of the Sunshine State have been tackling rising property taxes as well, especially in coveted retirement communities, since they’re measured based on real estate value.
Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of tax research institute Florida TaxWatch, recently told WFSU News this system is becoming unsustainable.
“At some point, we’re going to make Florida a place where you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s wonderful, but, the cost of food, the cost of housing, the cost of all these things is prohibitive and difficult for people of average means, let alone low-income means,” he said.
Insurance
Florida might be renowned for its warm weather — but it’s also prone to its fair share of hurricanes, tropical storms, flooding and other disasters, which can cause property damage and consequently insurance premiums to skyrocket.
“The average home premium in Florida is about $6,000,” Mark Friedlander, spokesperson for the Insurance Information Institute, told WPLG Local 10 in June. “That is nearly four times the U.S. average of $1,700.”
Half a dozen home insurers went insolvent in the state in 2022, while Farmers Insurance made headlines this summer for pulling out as well, affecting 100,000 policyholders. Insurers have blamed their woes on extreme weather, as well as legal system abuse and fraudulent claims.
Health care
For many Americans, access to affordable, quality health care is extremely important as you age — but it can often depend on where you live.
The average total cost of premiums and potential spending on deductibles across single and family insurance policies hit a high of $9,284 in the Sunshine State, or over 16% of the median household income, in 2020.
Along with 10 other states, Florida officials have also rejected expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which offers states extra matching funds if they open up the program to those with low incomes.
Millions Of Homes Sit Vacant Amid America’s Housing Crisis — Here Are The 3 Biggest Reasons
Jing Pan – October 17, 2023
America has a housing shortage. According to Realtor.com, the gap between single-family home construction and household formation grew to 6.5 million homes from 2012 to 2022.
And despite the Federal Reserve’s substantial interest rate hikes aimed at curbing inflation, housing affordability continues to elude many areas across the country, with rent prices surging in tandem.
Yet according to a new analysis by LendingTree, millions of homes stay vacant in America.
Using the latest U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data, LendingTree found that there are 5.5 million vacant housing units in the 50 largest metros in the U.S. This results in an average vacancy rate of 7.22%.
“In a simplified version of the housing market, vacancy rates should have a strong inverse relationship to home and rent prices,” wrote Jacob Channel, senior economist at LendingTree.
But reality can be different from theory, as home prices remain high in many parts of the country. Channel explained that there are “more nuanced factors” in play, such as location, mortgage rates, unit size and reasons homes are unoccupied.
The study revealed that New Orleans, Miami and Tampa, Florida, have the highest vacancy rates in the country, standing at 13.88%, 12.65% and 12.15%, respectively. In contrast, the lowest vacancy rates are found in Minneapolis; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C., with rates of 4.51%, 4.57%, and 4.98%, respectively.
Minneapolis, Austin and D.C. are the only three cities with vacancy rates below 5%.
Why Homes Are Vacant
Given the housing shortage in the U.S., you might wonder why these units remain unoccupied.
LendingTree’s analysis showed that the most prevalent reason (26.61%) for vacant housing units in the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas is that they are available for rent.
Meanwhile, 17.04% of housing units remain vacant because they are used only part-time.
Additionally, 7.98% of homes are unoccupied because of ongoing repair or renovation work.
LendingTree also pointed out that in cases where an area exhibits both high vacancy rates and high home prices, it may indicate the presence of distinctive features, such as being a sought-after vacation destination or a prime target for investors.
Housing Affordability In America
With rising interest rates, homebuyers find themselves contending with larger mortgage payments.
According to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2023 report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, the annual income needed to afford payments on a median-priced home in the U.S. is now $117,100, up nearly $20,000 from last year.
And that means millions of households are now priced out of the market.
“The number of renter households able to afford these higher payments shrunk by 32%, from 7.5 million to 5.1 million, a loss of 2.4 million potential homebuyers,” the Harvard researchers said.
To navigate an expensive housing market, LendingTree suggests shopping around for the best possible rate, considering different loan options and getting preapproved for your mortgage before you start house hunting.
“With a store or club located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, we are uniquely positioned to deliver a convenient charging option that will help make EV ownership possible whether people live in rural, suburban, or urban areas,” wrote Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Energy Transformation Vishal Kapadia in a release.
By installing charging stations across the country, Walmart makes owning an EV easier for drivers who worry they won’t be able to find a place to charge their vehicle.
“Easy access to on-the-go charging is a game-changer for drivers who have been hesitant to purchase an EV for concerns they won’t be able to find a charger in a clean, bright, and safe location when needed,” Kapadia wrote.
Already, 280 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations in the U.S. offer nearly 1,300 fast-charging stations for electric vehicles.
Not only are EVs better for the environment, but they’re also better for your wallet. EV owners spend about 60% less money each year on fuel than owners of comparable gasoline vehicles. Even maintenance and repairs are less pricey for EVs. Maintenance and repair costs for gasoline-powered vehicles are generally double what they are for EVs.
“We see our commitment today as a natural extension of our work to help customers and members live better, easier, and more sustainable lives,” Kapadia wrote. “[It’s] a big win for busy families and drivers everywhere, our country, and the planet.”
Study reveals why residents of this major city are losing an average 12 years off their life expectancies — and it’s likely not what you think
Laurelle Stelle – October 14, 2023
Air pollution can have a dramatic effect on human health. Living somewhere with heavily polluted air leads to long-term health problems.
A recent study examining the toll taken by pollution concluded that residents of Delhi, India, were losing almost 12 years from their life expectancy due to tiny particulates in the air, The Weather Channel reported.
What’s happening?
The study used satellite data from 2021 to determine the amount of PM2.5 pollution in different areas. PM2.5 refers to particulates under 2.5 micrometers in size. Particulates this small can be inhaled deep into the lungs, causing breathing and cardiovascular issues, according to one report in the Journal of Thoracic Disease.
The recent study found that Dehli had the highest levels of PM2.5 pollution worldwide, The Weather Channel reported. Residents there were exposed to 126.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air — more than 25 times the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum of five micrograms per cubic meter.
Across India as a whole, the average was 58.7 micrograms per cubic meter, or almost 12 times the recommended level, The Weather Channel reported.
This might sound like a faraway problem, but some cities in the United States also suffer from particulate pollution. Statista reported that as of 2022, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, had a PM2.5 level of 33.5 micrograms per cubic meter, over six times WHO’s recommended level.
Why are these numbers concerning?
According to The Weather Channel, pollution numbers this high have a measurable and dramatic impact on human lifespans. The study found that Delhi residents have their life expectancies shortened by 11.9 years compared to someone living with the clean air that the WHO recommends. The average Indian loses 5.3 years of life expectancy.
To put this in perspective, the researchers compared these numbers to the reduction in life expectancy caused by cardiovascular diseases, the number one cause of death worldwide. According to the study, cardiovascular disease reduced the average lifespan of India’s residents by 4.5 years — making air quality a more severe threat to health.
What can be done about PM2.5 pollution?
According to the New York Department of Health, one of the most common sources of PM2.5 pollution is gas-powered vehicles — and Delhi is famous for its traffic.
Switching to electric vehicles, like this solar-powered seven-seat bike from Indian entrepreneur Asad Abdullah, could make a world of difference. This change becomes more possible every year as EVs become more and more cost-effective.
Unretiring: More retirees are going back to work because they want to — or need to
Kerry Hannon, Senior Columnist – October 14, 2023
Richard Eisenberg retired in 2022.
At 65, he stepped away from his job as managing editor for “Next Avenue,” the PBS website for people over 50, where he had worked for a decade.
“I had a rough idea of what my retirement would be,” Eisenberg told Yahoo Finance. “I knew I would be ‘unretiring’ since I still wanted to be doing some writing, some editing, and some teaching, but not all the time.”
So far, he has. Eisenberg, who lives in Westfield, N.J., explores “unretirement” in his expert columns, podcast and teaching posts, including an online NYU master class.
“I’m seeing a lot of curiosity about the idea,” he said. “I’m still a little surprised that it seems like such a foreign concept to people.”
A growing number of retirees like Eisenberg have stepped off the sidelines and headed back to work, especially after many were forced to retire in the pandemic, according to a new report from T. Rowe Price. Around 7% of retirees are looking for work in retirement, while 20% say they’re already working part time or full time.
“In 2021, during the pandemic, that percentage was 10%,” Judith Ward, a certified financial planner and thought leadership director at T. Rowe Price, told Yahoo Finance. “They might have been forced to retire, and now we’re seeing that they are reentering the workforce.”
“Unretiree” Richard Eisenberg teaching students at the NYU Summer Publishing Institute 2023 (Photo courtesy of Eisenberg) (Richard Eisenberg)
The two main reasons for coming back into the workforce are a tale of opposites. While 45% chose to work for social and emotional benefits like Eisenberg, a slightly larger percentage — 48% — felt they needed to work for financial reasons.
Older adults, those age 65 and older, represent the fastest growing group of homeless, while poverty among older Americans has escalated. Policymakers and researchers have also been fretting that the share of older Americans with debt has risen from 38% to 63% since 1990, according to a recent report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
“Many people retired during the pandemic for a variety of reasons and the financial reality of that is now hitting home,” Chris Farrell, author of “Unretirement” and “Purpose and a Paycheck,” told Yahoo Finance. “Working even a few hours a week can help shore up household finances.”
“They’re taking advantage of the tight labor market to unretire, often by picking up part-time work, flexible gigs, starting their own business, and even encore careers,” Farrell said.
Damascus, Md.-based resident Gary Socha, 69, who retired after being laid off during the pandemic from his publishing job, stepped back in two years ago and is now working part time, four hours a day, as an advertising and event representative.
“It was too early, and my wife is five years younger and still working,” Socha told Yahoo Finance. “And financially… it just seems to make sense to make some more money and make yourself a little bit more secure and more comfortable for when you do retire. I could see doing this for quite a while.”
For other retirees, the lack of retirement planning or saving is coming back to haunt them.
“It’s not uncommon for people to retire without having actually made a retirement plan, and then find some financial surprises along the way,” Mark Miller, a retirement expert and author of “Retirement Reboot,” told Yahoo Finance. “That can prompt some people to go back to work. And the faster pace of inflation we’ve been experiencing also is motivating some people to go back to work, just to help cover their living expenses.”
Source: T. Rowe Price (T. Rowe Price)
How much wealth you have to tap, of course, is the lynchpin. There’s a huge difference by household assets when it comes to retirees who say they “don’t need to work,” according tothe T. Rowe Price report, which surveyed 2,895 401(k) retirement plan participants and 1,136 retirees with a Rollover IRA or a left-in-plan balance.
The report found 37% of retirees with household assets under $50,000 said they don’t need to work versus 55% of those in the $50,000-to-$250,000 category and 72% with assets of $750,000 and above.
Women are particularly vulnerable. In the report, 49% of retired women who were working or looking for work said they need the money compared to 41% of men.
One reason is that many women have less savings to depend on in retirement and lower Social Security benefits because of time out of the workplace for caregiving.
“Typically, lower incomes, higher debt loads — especially student loans — and shorter job tenures are some of the factors contributing to the gender savings gap,” Sudipto Banerjee, T. Rowe Price’s vice president, retirement, and author of the report, told Yahoo Finance at the WISER Annual Women’s Retirement Symposium.
The biggest financial payoffs of additional years of paid work are pushing back retirement account withdrawals, continuing to save, and delaying claiming Social Security benefits.
“Additional income can give you more time to contribute to your savings and it can also help you pay down debt and increase your cash reserves ahead of full retirement,” Ward said. And for those unretirees who haven’t started taking their Social Security benefit, delaying to claim means more money down the road.
“You’ll get a higher benefit, and it’s inflation-adjusted, so that’s a good deal for many people,” Ward said.
Many retirees are looking to continue working in some form, a T. Rowe Price report finds. (Getty Creative) (10’000 Hours via Getty Images)
The feel good part of staying on the job
There’s also the emotional draw of working, which is the second most-cited reason retirees choose to return to work.
Many retirees see part-time work as a good transition strategy with 57% of retirees wanting to continue working in some form, the T. Rowe Price report found. Men, in particular, were more likely to cite social connections as motivation to work.
“A lot of us want to work part-time in retirement,” Eisenberg said. “We want to stay active, have social connections, bring in some income and to stay mentally engaged, but we also want to have time to do other things.”
Plus, there’s the freedom to do what you want to do this time around, Eisenberg said. That means choosing a working route that isn’t stuffed with meetings, administrative duties — all “the parts of our former job that we didn’t like so much.”
And then there are the psychological benefits that work can offer, Robert Laura, a retirement coach, told Yahoo Finance. Several studies have indicated the positive mental effects of working. In fact, among older adults, retirees are more likely to experience depression compared to those who are still working, according to one recent paper.
“Work provides routine, structure, connection, mental stimulus, purpose, and relevance,” Laura said. “These are all things that many people don’t realize they are losing when they leave work and that aren’t easily replaced with golf, grandkids, and crossword puzzles.”
Kerry Hannon is a Senior Reporter and Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a workplace futurist, a career and retirement strategist, and the author of 14 books, including “In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in The New World of Work” and “Never Too Old To Get Rich.”
Empire building has always come at an economic cost for Russia – from the days of the czars to Putin’s Ukraine invasion
Christopher A. Hartwell, Professor of International Business Policy, ZHAW School of Management and Law and Paul Vaaler, Professor of Law and Business, University of Minnesota – October 13, 2023
The Russian economy: A Potemkin village? Getty Images
President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has come at huge economic costs. By conservative estimates, the Russian economy has taken a US$67 billion annual hit as a result of war expenses and the effects of economic sanctions. In the early stages of the invasion, some analysts put the costs even higher, at $900 million per day.
These war costs show no sign of abating. The newly released Russian government budget for 2024 calls for a 70% defense expenditure increase, an astonishing reallocation of precious resources for a war that some observers expected to last a week at most.
Indeed, if you were to tune in to broadcasts of state-run RT television’s “CrossTalk” with American host Peter Lavelle, you’d be reassured that hardly anyone notices “irrelevant” Western sanctions, with even some reputable Western economists claiming that sanctions are harming Europe more than Russia.
Certainly, Muscovite oligarchs can still stroll across Red Square to Agent Provocateur and the GUM luxury shopping mall to buy lingerie for their wives and perhaps mistresses, too. And almost 8 in 10 Russians report to pollsters that sanctions have not affected their daily lives.
Such an economic hit was to be expected. As we show in a preprint study, imperial overreach from Russia in territories that are not its own has resulted in long-term damage to the Russian economy for over a century. More importantly, even during czarist times, rebellion in the modern-day lands of Ukraine against Russian rule led to the highest costs for the Russian economy.
Huge boost in military spending
Russia’s ability to seemingly absorb massive shocks since February 2022 is due in part to producers becoming accustomed to the milder sanctions that began in 2014 with the initial invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.
This approach has continued with the Russian government’s 2024 budget, which is currently on its way to be rubber-stamped in the Russian parliament, the Duma. While mobilization of troops for Russia’s growing quagmire is moving in fits and starts, the Kremlin has proceeded with a full-scale economic mobilization. Expenditures on defense are forecast to be 6% of the country’s GDP, making up a full 29% of all Russian government spending, according to an analysis by the Bank of Finland, and with an additional 9% spent on “national security.” In contrast, social programs are a mere 21% of the budget. Compare this with the United States, where defense spending is 3% of GDP and 12% of all government expenditures.
Financial markets have reacted poorly to Russia’s most recent imperial adventure. The ruble’s turbulence is well known, once again breaking 100 rubles to the dollar on Oct. 3, 2023, but Russia’s inability to service its debt has been more under the radar.
For the first time since the Bolsheviks refused to honor the country’s foreign debt in 1918, Russia defaulted on its foreign currency payments in June 2022, and major ratings agencies stopped rating Russian government bonds.
At the same time, bond yields on existing Russian government debt – an excellent measure of fiscal risk – have been climbing almost continuously since the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, rising to nearly 14% in 2014 and recently climbing to over 13%, an 18-month high.
Ponzi-like scheme
The combination of military aggression, stretched finances and battlefield stagnation are nothing new for Russia, especially in Ukraine. As our study shows, czarist fiscal management from 1820 to 1914 was based on a Ponzi-like scheme that funded land grabs and military expansion with government borrowing through bond issues, taxation of newly acquired territories and bond repayment by a government now overseeing a more geographically extensive state.
By 1914, Czar Nicholas II had bonds worth more than $155 billion in 2022 dollars trading abroad – by comparison, the value of British debt in 1914 equates to approximately $123 billion today.
Vladimir Putin’s handling of the economy since the early 2000s has been based on a similar pyramid scheme, we would argue. A combination of aggressive foreign borrowing and natural resource exports have financed foreign wars and domestic repression in territories of Russia’s near abroad: These have included conflicts in Chechnyaand Georgia in the 2000s; Crimea and the Donbas in the 2010s; and the rest of Ukraine in the 2020s. Until this current round of aggression toward Ukraine, the outcome of these conflicts appeared to favor Russia, with its seemingly strong central government, military and economy.
However, Russia may now be at an inflection point. Historically, when Russia’s military was successful, it was able to finance both its war machine and industrialization.
Yet even past military success put the regime on very shaky ground that allowed small setbacks to threaten its foundation. Military reversals such as the stunning loss to Japan in 1905 or even the costs associated with pacifying troublesome territories such as in the Caucasus created more difficulties and risk for Russian bond markets and its economy. Indeed, unrest, armed rebellion and serf revolts in the far reaches of the empire raised Russian bond yields by approximately 1%. This risk was much higher than if such unrest occurred even in St. Petersburg or Moscow.
And perhaps most importantly, in Ukraine the cost of empire during czarist times was the largest, with each rebellion or bout of unrest in Ukraine raising Russian yields by between 3% and 3.5%.
With its newest defense budget going “all in” on its already faltering invasion of Ukraine, Russia appears to have learned none of the lessons of its past. Then as now, Ukraine and Ukrainian defiance constituted a grave threat to Russian territorial ambitions.
In 2024, that defiance just might prove too determined and too costly for an increasingly fragile Russian economy. And as in 1917, the consequences could be far beyond the control of the modern-day czar in the Kremlin.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Returning to the office is costing you $51 per day, study finds
Chris Morris, Jane Thier – October 11, 2023
Getty Images
Returning to the office won’t just cost you more time. It could add another $51 (or more) per day to your expenses, according to a new survey.
The annual State of Work report from videoconferencing company Owl Labs, first provided to Fortune, finds the average spend of returning workers is $51 per day when they work in person. And workers with pets, the company says, average $71 per day in spending.
The total, says Owl Labs, breaks down as follows:
$16 – Lunch
$14 – Commuting costs
$13 – Breakfast/coffee
$8 – Parking
($20 – pet care)
Employees who work a hybrid schedule, the company says, spend just $36 per day.
Last year’s Owl Labs data looked mostly identical—hybrid workers spent the same additional amount, $51, on in-person days in 2022, showing that a full year of new norms have done little to make an office return more convincing for most workers. “Companies that want to bring workers back to the office this fall might try providing a stipend, free lunch, or pre-tax commuter benefits to help offset these in-office costs,” Frank Weishaupt, Owl Labs’ CEO, told Fortune last year.
The new data can be shocking, but it might not be a bad idea to take these numbers with a grain of salt. Owl Labs, given its focus, has a likely bias towards workers embracing the hybrid or telecommuting lifestyle. Workers can save a considerable amount off those totals by bringing lunch from home or bypassing Starbucks on the way to work. And many office workers do not have to pay to park at work.
Still, the survey does underscore the additional costs of returning to the office in a time where the economy is uncertain and fears of a recession loom. The survey of 2,000 workers found that 94% of workers are willing to come back to the office if their bosses shore up the financial difference. They’d mainly expect support covering commuting costs and subsidized meals, snacks, and coffee—all of which, clearly, adds up fast.
While return-to-office mandates have been announced by several companies, worker compliance has been mixed. And a growing number of U.S. executives believe remote work and hybrid options will continue to grow over the next five years, according to a separate study from researchers at Stanford University.
That study found executives expect 72.6% of full-time employees will be fully in-person/on-site in 2028, compared to nearly 92% in 2018.
By Michelle Llamas, Bd Cert. Patient Adv, October 11, 2023
Michelle Llamas has been writing articles and producing podcasts about drugs, medical devices and the FDA for nearly a decade. She focuses on various medical conditions, health policy, COVID-19, LGBTQ health, mental health and women’s health issues. Michelle collaborates with experts, including board-certified doctors, patients and advocates, to provide trusted health information to the public. Some of her qualifications include:
Member of American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) and former Engage Committee and Membership Committee member
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Literacy certificates
Original works published or cited in The Lancet, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and the Journal for Palliative Medicine
Board Certified Patient Advocate, Patient Advocacy Certificate from University of Miami.
“Glyphosate, the active component found in popular herbicides such as Roundup, sees extensive application in agriculture to combat unwanted weeds that compete with crops. Nevertheless, apprehensions have surfaced concerning its safety and potential impacts on health. Legal disputes have arisen, asserting that exposure to glyphosate through products like Roundup might be connected to specific types of cancer, notably non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Glyphosate operates by inhibiting the enzyme EPSP synthase, causing disruptions in plant growth that ultimately result in the plant’s demise. While some regulatory authorities consider the levels of glyphosate in food as safe, concerns regarding its long-term consequences continue to grow. Typical repercussions of exposure include skin and respiratory irritations, and research indicates potential associations between glyphosate and both cancer and neurological disorders. Certain countries within the European Union have imposed bans on glyphosate, and Bayer, the manufacturer of Roundup, has encountered significant settlements in legal actions in the United States lawsuits linked to glyphosate exposure.”
Tips for Reducing Glyphosate Exposure
People can avoid glyphosate use with several Roundup alternatives. These include manual or mechanical methods of weed pulling, such as small and large hand tools, tillers and other mechanical methods.
Natural or organic herbicides whose active ingredients are vinegar or essential oils are also an option. Ask your local home and garden center for organic or natural herbicides that do not contain glyphosate.
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