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Do we even trust our leaders to help?
Retiring old ideas about retirement
Social Security more solvent than most Americans realize
Focus group participants discuss retirement
Series looks at middle-class angst
Insurance misery has no easy cure
Health-care matchup finds Ohio falls short
Most Read Stories
Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Four teens restrain man, take items from his Akron home
Complaints against officer keep coming
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Region makes way for latest batch of snow; cancellations rise
Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Track HR Research
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Published on Sunday, Mar 16, 2008
Today's story about a middle-class family is unusual for us. We don't name the family.
The reason?
As we began last October to research the struggling middle class, one thing was eminently clear: Lots of people in our community are feeling the same pressures, but they are — understandably — reluctant to expose their concerns so candidly.
This family, by agreeing to completely bare its financial life, in some ways is able to be more real.
Today's installment is the first of several that will run this year as we consider education, housing, jobs, health care and the overall future for the middle class. In some cases, the subjects of the stories have agreed to be named, but not always.
This project is an outgrowth of a study by David Knox, the Beacon Journal's specialist in computer research. In 2007, he participated in a Kiplinger Fellowship at Ohio State University, where he used the horsepower of university computers to analyze 51 million records spanning five decades of Census Bureau data, prepared by the University of Minnesota's Population Center. In September 2007, the Beacon Journal published his findings, showing that successive generations of Americans are earning less than their parents.
The Web version of the story included an interactive database, allowing readers to compare their own income with national statistics. That project is available at http://www.ohio.com/hottopic/10675396.html.
After publication of that project, the Beacon Journal invited readers to participate in focus groups, which were held in late October. The purpose was to listen to citizens discuss how they related to the trends in Knox's finding.
The seven sessions were facilitated by Alice Rodgers of Jemez Pueblo, N.M. Formerly a resident of Stark County, she has facilitated many discussions for the newspaper over 25 years, including the Beacon Journal's examination of race relations in 1993, which resulted in the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Out of those focus groups arose the several topics that will be examined before the 2008 presidential election.
Knox and Beacon Journal columnist David Giffels are the reporters on this project. Photographer Ed Suba Jr. and artist Deborah Kauffman Barry prepared the photos, illustrations and graphics for today's installment.
— The editors
Today's story about a middle-class family is unusual for us. We don't name the family.
The reason?
Middle class hanging by thread as rich get richer, poor get poorer
Meet the family: Census data form American portrait
Today's story about a middle-class family is unusual for us
The very things that define the middle class slipping out of reach for many Ohioans
Story behind the story: five decades of data
Speaking of... Voices from The American Dream series
Median annual pay in the U.S. over the decades (pdf)
As we began last October to research the struggling middle class, one thing was eminently clear: Lots of people in our community are feeling the same pressures, but they are — understandably — reluctant to expose their concerns so candidly.
This family, by agreeing to completely bare its financial life, in some ways is able to be more real.
Today's installment is the first of several that will run this year as we consider education, housing, jobs, health care and the overall future for the middle class. In some cases, the subjects of the stories have agreed to be named, but not always.
This project is an outgrowth of a study by David Knox, the Beacon Journal's specialist in computer research. In 2007, he participated in a Kiplinger Fellowship at Ohio State University, where he used the horsepower of university computers to analyze 51 million records spanning five decades of Census Bureau data, prepared by the University of Minnesota's Population Center. In September 2007, the Beacon Journal published his findings, showing that successive generations of Americans are earning less than their parents.
The Web version of the story included an interactive database, allowing readers to compare their own income with national statistics. That project is available at http://www.ohio.com/hottopic/10675396.html.
After publication of that project, the Beacon Journal invited readers to participate in focus groups, which were held in late October. The purpose was to listen to citizens discuss how they related to the trends in Knox's finding.
The seven sessions were facilitated by Alice Rodgers of Jemez Pueblo, N.M. Formerly a resident of Stark County, she has facilitated many discussions for the newspaper over 25 years, including the Beacon Journal's examination of race relations in 1993, which resulted in the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Out of those focus groups arose the several topics that will be examined before the 2008 presidential election.
Knox and Beacon Journal columnist David Giffels are the reporters on this project. Photographer Ed Suba Jr. and artist Deborah Kauffman Barry prepared the photos, illustrations and graphics for today's installment.
— The editors
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