Leticia

“After the New Deal, economists began referring to America’s retirement-finance model as a “three-legged stool.” This sturdy tripod was composed of Social Security, private pensions, and combined investments and savings. In recent years, of course, two of those legs have been kicked out. Many Americans saw their assets destroyed by the Great Recession; even before the economic collapse, many had been saving less and less. And since the 1980s, employers have been replacing defined-benefit pensions that are funded by employers and guarantee a monthly sum in perpetuity with 401(k) plans, which often rely on employee contributions and can run dry before death. Marketed as instruments of financial liberation that would allow workers to make their own investment choices, 401(k)s were part of a larger cultural drift in America away from shared responsibilities toward a more precarious individualism. Translation: 401(k)s are vastly cheaper for companies than pension plans. “Over the last generation, we have witnessed a massive transfer of economic risk from broad structures of insurance, including those sponsored by the corporate sector as well as by government, onto the fragile balance sheets of American families,” Yale political scientist Jacob S. Hacker writes in his book The Great Risk Shift. The overarching message: “You are on your own.”
― Jessica Bruder, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

“Radium was a clever poison. It masked its way inside its victims’ bones; it foxed the most experienced physicians. And like the expert serial killer it was, it had now evolved its modus operandi.”
― Kate Moore

“The family remonstrated with me on the subject from time to time, though they never actually ordered me not to smoke. They began by requesting that I should not smoke "under their roof." Whereat I smokedon the roof, up the chimney, out of doors, and in other houses. Then I was told not to smoke in their presence. Finally, even that lapsed, and I puffed away when and where I pleased except in public.”
― Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Crowded Hours

“Hate is not from God. People who use religion to hate can't love God. It is impossible.”
― Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller, The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan