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The PPP: Why Are We Shifting the Unemployment Problem?

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The PPP: Why Are We Shifting the Unemployment Problem?

In times of hardship, it becomes tempting to shift a problem onto someone else; the legislation that came out of the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated this exact tendency. In response to the economic disruption caused by Covid-19, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act. The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) is section 1102 of the CARES Act. It aims to provide relief to small businesses in the form of a loan that can be forgiven by spending loan funds on certain types of business expenses. Although the CARES Act provides unemployment benefits, the PPP is also positioned to act as an unemployment office. By heavily emphasizing a business’s requirement to spend on payroll costs to obtain loan forgiveness (no matter the need, or lack thereof, for labor), the government essentially pushes the unemployment problem away from itself, and forces struggling small business owners to deal with it instead.

A Business Doing Pleasure: A Call to Decriminalize Sex Work

A Business Doing Pleasure: A Call to Decriminalize Sex Work

In March 2021, a gunman opened fire on three massage parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people. Six of the victims were Asian women. In the shooting’s aftermath, many of us found ourselves wondering whether the women he killed were prostitutes or victims of sex trafficking. But when we find ourselves wondering whether victims of violence were involved in sex work, we should ask ourselves why. If the women he murdered gave one type of massage over another, would that make them less deserving of our sympathy? What if they were sex workers, but not by choice? If they weren’t sex workers, would we feel bad that the media portrayed them as such?

Examining Doctors’ Roles in the Opioid Epidemic

Examining Doctors’ Roles in the Opioid Epidemic

Tom Petty and Michael Jackson have more in common than being internationally known recording artists; both of their lives tragically ended as a result of prescription drug overdoses. Petty was prescribed several prescription medications to deal with a hip injury, while Jackson was prescribed medication to combat insomnia. While Tom Petty’s doctor was neither charged nor investigated in connection with Petty’s death, it was a different story with Michael Jackson’s doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray. Dr. Murray was charged with and eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter following Jackson’s death, and served two years in prison.

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How to Better Protect Low-wage Workers from Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

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How to Better Protect Low-wage Workers from Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

The EEOC has found that about a quarter of sexual harassment complaints came from the service sector, which is dominated by low-wage, female workers. Many low-wage jobs are disproportionally held by women of color or immigrants. These women also often face intersectional disadvantages —burdens posed by race, national origin, gender identity, and other characteristics beyond gender alone — that may trigger biased treatment. Despite these findings, women’s movements like the #MeToo movement have failed to include the experiences of low wage workers, women of color, undocumented immigrants, and other segments of minority communities. Worse yet, many of these workers are not legally protected from sexual harassment.

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The Right to Bear 3D-Printed Firearms

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The Right to Bear 3D-Printed Firearms

However, unknown to the travelers, there are two individuals not trying to catch a train, but rather trying to smuggle a 3D-printed firearm through security. They are two reporters from The Mail on Sunday, and in an effort to bring awareness to the dangers of 3D-printed firearms, they downloaded the Liberator blueprints online, bought a 3D-printer, printed the 16-part pistol, purchased a common nail you would find at a hardware store to act as the firing pin, and successfully smuggled the pistol parts onto a crowded Eurostar heading to Paris.