Old People Still Want Their ‘Ham and Eggs’

A 1930s California Campaign Set the Stage for Today’s Debates Around Aging, ‘Entitlements,’ and Debt

How did Americans learn the value of being paid in retirement?

If you’re an American, you’ve almost certainly heard of Social Security. But you probably haven’t heard of its predecessor, the Townsend Plan, advanced by a Long Beach, California doctor named Francis Townsend.

Social Security—and the ways we think about work, aging, and retirement—owe much to the Townsend Plan and its California roots. Its history is worth revisiting today, as a premonition of politics in an aging world.

The idea behind the Townsend Plan, drafted in 1933, was for the federal government to …

Why California’s Pensions Only Deepen Inequality

The Golden State’s Promise to Retirees Puts at Risk the Other Promises It Makes to Its Citizens

If we can’t get rid of the California Rule, can we at least ditch the name?

The California Rule is the misleading moniker we’ve given to our state’s most troublesome legal …

California Sticks Its Schoolkids’ Futures in a Vise

Even with Record Education Funding, Escalating Retirement Costs and Expensive New Demands Have Brought School Districts to the Brink

Don’t squeeze your kids too hard as you send them off to another school year, because the state of California is already squeezing your kids hard enough to hurt their …