Lake County Ohio Weal

Grassroots Spiritual Movement Model Commonweal Local Communities (CLCs) started as a grassroots movement.  Commonweal provided readers with a webpage to link up with established CLCs, or to initiate a new one for their area.  Most of our members were Commonweal subscribers generated by the web site; only a few knew each other beforehand, and only a few were recruited by members. Religious movements grow through the personal relationships of social networks (family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.) not through mailing lists of unrelated consumers of products and services.  According to the website, “ Commonweal fosters rigorous and reflective discussions about faith, public affairs, and the arts, centered on belief in the common good.”  CLCs “gather in their local communities for critical conversation on the issues that matter most. Each community determines their goals, set-up, meeting times, and the readings best suited for them.  As for the conversat...

GALLUP View of U.S. Healthcare Quality Declines to 24 Year Low   Americans' rating of U.S. healthcare coverage is below average;  most say the system has major problems by Megan Brenan Americans' positive rating of the quality of healthcare in the U.S. is now at its lowest point in Gallup’s trend dating back to 2001. The current 44% of U.S. adults who say the quality of healthcare is excellent (11%) or good (33%) is down by a total of 10 percentage points since 2020 after steadily eroding each year. Between 2001 and 2020, majorities ranging from 52% to 62% rated U.S. healthcare quality positively; now, 54% say it is only fair (38%) or poor (16%). As has been the case throughout the 24-year trend, Americans rate healthcare coverage in the U.S. even more negatively than they rate quality. Just 28% say coverage is excellent or good, four points lower than the average since 2001 and well below the 41% high point in 2012. In addition to registering subpar ratings of the quality and...

  GALLUP: More in U.S. See Health Coverage as Government Responsibility Approval of Affordable Care Act also near high point by Jeffrey M. Jones -Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults, the highest percentage in more than a decade, say it is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage. The figure had slipped to as low as 42% in 2013 during the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA's) healthcare exchanges. It has been as high as 69% in 2006. The results are based on Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare survey, conducted Nov. 6-20. The same poll finds fewer Americans than in the recent past rating U.S. healthcare coverage and quality positively. Large majorities of Democrats have consistently believed the government should make sure all Americans have health coverage. The 90% of Democrats who now say the government should ensure health coverage for all is the highest Gallup has measured for the group to date. The high points for Re...

STATISTA: Most Loved Digital Audio Streaming Platforms   by Anna Fleck, Sep 30, 2024 Digital audio streaming has taken off in a big way in the past ten years. According to Statista’s Digital Music Outlook, the music streaming market size increased to US$25.84 billion in 2023, reaching a total of around 900 million users. The pandemic years saw particular growth in the podcast industry, as people forced to stay home searched out entertainment, driving up listenership and advertiser investment. According to Megaphone, a podcast technology company owned by Spotify, where 2021 was a story of “content explosion”, 2022 became one of “diversification”, as the most significant jumps in podcast downloads came from markets newer to the medium, such as Spain (+298 percent), Italy (+244 percent), and France (+375 percent), while the highest growth in unique listeners in terms of age groups was the 13-17 year olds (+49 percent) and the 55-64 year olds (+45 percent). A handful of companies are l...

  STATISTA & PEW: Americans Agree that Money Has Too Much Power in Congress by  Felix Richter, Dec 9, 2024 The line between lobbying, political donations and corruption is perilously thin. While the former is sometimes referred to as “bribery in a suit” by critics, the key difference between the two is that lobbying is legal, while bribery as a form of corruption is not. While both practices are seeking influence, bribery is actually buying it while lobbying is merely trying to sway lawmakers’ opinions in the desired direction – at least officially. Critics argue that lobbying, especially in the form of large-scale campaign donations, be it from individuals, organizations or interest groups, often implies an element of quid-pro-quo that borders on corruption. “We supported you and now we expect you to do the same for us,” is the understanding behind such transactions, with the absence of any guarantees making sure that no legal lines are crossed. While there’s not much tha...

  STATISTA; The Varying State of Retirement Ages by  Anna Fleck, Jul 4, 2024 The following chart is based on OECD estimates of national labor force surveys and the European Union Labour Force Survey, looking at retirement ages in a selection of the 50 countries analyzed, based on a five year average between 2017-2022. It shows how average retirement ages vary significantly across the world, with Indonesia showing the oldest age among men at 69.8 years, followed by Iceland (68.3) and Japan (68.3). When looking at the 2022 year alone, however, Indonesia’s number is far lower, at just 58 years old for men, while in Iceland it was 67 and Japan 65. For women, Indonesia again came out on top (69.2; although also at just 57 years when looking at 2022 and not the 5 year average) and was followed closely behind by India (69.1 for 2017-22; 58 for only 2022) and then Korea (67.4 for 2017-22; 62 for only 2022). Saudi Arabia had the lowest average retirement age for men (58.9 for 2017-22; ...

  STATISTA: The Looming Retirement Crises by Anna Fleck,  Sep 14, 2023 An aging population represents a major challenge for many countries around the world. Falling birth rates coupled with rising life expectancies are likely to place significant pressure on labor markets, healthcare and pension systems. OECD data reveals how a number of countries are facing particularly rapid aging. Where the number of retirees for every 100 workers already stood at 52 in Japan and 40 in Italy in 2020, projections say this could hit 81 and 74 by 2050. The challenges posed by such demographic changes will affect a growing number of countries in the coming decades, including China and the United States, whose populations currently remain younger than those of the other nations on this chart.  You will find more infographics at Statista

  STATISTA: Nearly One in Five U.S. Teenagers Experience Depression in 2023 by  Anna Fleck,   Dec 2, 2024 One of the reasons governments are moving to restrict teenagers’ access to social media is the fear of its harm to mental health. The topic has been reignited by the release of a new book titled The Anxious Generation, by New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who links the rise in mental health illness directly to the proliferation of social networks and smartphones. While Haidt writes that social media and smartphones are not the only causes of the mental health epidemic seen in several countries, he points to how such technologies are hindering children’s healthy development by reducing their time spent playing with friends in real life, eating into time for sleeping, as well as corroding their self esteem. Even children who do not use social media are struggling, he argues, due to the changes brought about to social life. Critics say, however, tha...

STATISTA: Majority Supports Social Media Ban for Children by  Anna Fleck, Dec 2, 2024 Australia has passed a social media ban for teenagers and children under the age of 16, which will apply to companies including Instagram, X and TikTok. The measure is intended to reduce the “social harm” done to young Australians and is set to come into force from late 2025. Tech giants will be up against fines of up to A$49.6 million ($32.5 million) if they do not adhere to the rules. The new law was approved on Thursday, with support from a majority of the general public. However, the blanket ban has sparked backlash from several child rights groups who warn that it could cut off access to vital support, particularly for children from migrant, LGBTQIA+ and other minority backgrounds. Critics argue it could also push children towards less regulated areas of the internet. The new legislation is the strictest of its kind on a national level and comes as other countries grapple with how best to reg...

  STATISTA: What Categories Have Been Hit Hardest by Inflation? by  Felix Richter,   Nov 15, 2024 Despite inflation cooling to the lowest level in more than three years in recent months, there's no way around the fact that consumer prices in the United States have risen sharply over the past three years, as several factors came together to form a perfect storm of inflationary pressures. Since February 2020, the last month before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the global economy, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) has increased 21.7 percent. Assuming the Fed’s targeted 2-percent inflation rate, prices would only have increased by 9.7 percent during that period, illustrating how severe the recent inflation surge has been. More importantly though, prices are going to remain elevated even if inflation returns to its target level of 2 percent, meaning that the effects of the inflation crisis will linger. Not all prices are created equal, however, and wh...

  STATISTA: Soft Landing Completed? by  Felix Richter,   Nov 15, 2024 With U.S. GDP growing 2.8 percent in the third quarter, unemployment still remarkably low at around 4 percent and inflation falling towards the Fed’s 2-percent target in recent months, the U.S. economy is doing quite well on paper. In fact, it looks like the long-coveted “soft landing”, i.e. taming inflation without a drastic increase in unemployment or a full-blown recession, is almost completed . And yet, frustration with the economy, and high prices in particular, is one of the reasons why Donald Trump and Republicans won the election so emphatically. Speaking about the disconnect between the actual state of the economy and people’s perception of it, Fed chairman Jerome Powell recently acknowledged t he hardship many Americans are going through, saying that they have every right to feel the way they feel. “We say that the economy is performing well, and it is, but we also know that people are still f...

WEAL Weal has, since the dawn of English, referred to well-being. It’s most often used in the phrase “common weal” to refer to the general good—that is, to the happiness, health, and safety of everyone in a community or nation.  A closed form of this phrase, commonweal, has since the 14th century carried the same meaning, but it once also referred to an organized political entity, such as a nation or state. This job (among others) is now done by the word’s close relation, commonwealth.   At one time, weal and wealth were synonyms; both meant “riches” (as in “all their worldly weal”) and “well-being.” Both words stem from wela, the Old English word for “well-being,” and are closely related to the Old English word for “well.” Merriam-Webster: Weal 1 archaic : commonwealth 2 : the general welfare COMMONWEALTH 1 a nation, state, or other political unit: such as   a one founded on law and united by compact or tacit a...

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  STATISTA: How Common Is It To Own a Dog? by Anna Fleck,  Oct 15, 2024 Data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey reveals that dog ownership varies greatly around the world. Where as many as seven in ten respondents said they had a dog as a pet in Mexico in a survey conducted between July 2023 and June 2024, under three in ten said the same in Sweden. In the United States, around half of respondents said they owned a dog. Americans were most likely to own a dog, followed by a cat (36 percent), a fish (7 percent), a reptile (4 percent) and a bird (4 percent). Only three percent of respondents said they owned a rodent, whether a rabbit, a hamster, guinea pig, mouse or rat. You will find more infographics at Statista STATISTA: Dogs vs. Cats by  Martin Armstrong, Dec 7, 2022 Looking at the internet, you'd probably come to the conclusion that the world's favorite pet is the cat. After all, the world wide web is full of cute and funny videos, gifs and memes of our feline c...

STATISTA: IMF Forecasts Study Global Growth in 2024, 2025   by  Anna Fleck,   Oct 23, 2024 Global growth is expected to remain “stable yet underwhelming” in 2024 and 2025, at a steady 3.2 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) October World Economic Outlook, published Tuesday. As the following chart shows, India, China, Russia and the United States are forecast to see slower growth between 2024 and 2025. In Russia, this change is expected to be most pronounced, dropping 2.3 percentage points. Meanwhile, 2025 is forecast to be an improved year for growth in the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. There have been several notable revisions since the July 2024 World Economic Outlook. For example, the U.S. has had an upwards revision to a forecasted growth of 2.8 percent in 2024, from the previously estimated 2.6 percent. In 2025, growth is expected to slow to 2.2 percent in the U.S. as fiscal policy is gradually tightened and a cooling labor market slows ...

  STATISTA: Younger Generations to Become Biggest Spenders in Africa Asia by  Katharina Buchholz,   Oct 22, 2024 In the year 2030, Millennials or even Gen Z members are expected to be contributing the largest share of consumer spending in many countries in Africa, Asia and also some in Latin America. This is according to a report by World Data lab, Nielsen and GfK. By 2030, Gen Z will be the biggest-spending generation in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, India and Pakistan as well as Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico and Peru, among others. Millennials meanwhile will be the largest spenders, for example, in China, Russia, much of North Africa and the Middle East as well as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Chile. Six years down the line, Gen X will continue to contribute the largest part of consumer class spending in much of Europe, in the United States and Canada as well as in Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, South Korea and more. France and Japan are among the few countr...

  STATISTA: Russia, U.S. Are High Per Capita Polluters by  Anna Fleck,   Oct 25, 2024 Of the world’s top emissions producers, Russia and the United States emit the highest per capita emissions. According to data from the UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2024, Russia produced 19 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tC02e) per person in 2023, closely followed by the U.S. with 18 tCO2e. China produced nearly half that at 11 tCO2e per capita. When looking at total emissions, then China was the biggest single-country emitter of GHGs in 2023 at 16,000 MtCO2e, accounting for 30 percent of global emissions. This is up 5.2 percent from 2022. The U.S. is the second biggest emitter at 5,970 MtCO2e in total, having accounted for 11 percent of the global total last year (-1.4 percent since 2022). India, in third place, accounted for eight percent of the global total at 4,410 MtCO2e (+6.1 percent from 2022). As this chart shows, GHG emissions across the G20 members increased by 1.8 percent be...

  STATISTA: The Key to Happiness by Anna Fleck,  Oct 18, 2024 In the United States, having a job or career that you enjoy is considered a key cornerstone for leading a fulfilling life. According to a survey by Pew Research Center, 71 percent of respondents said that having a job or career that they like is either extremely or very important to feeling satisfied with their lot.  The next most popular perceived element for a fulfilling life was having close friends, with 61 percent of respondents picking the option.  Having children, a lot of money or getting married were less highly rated. In the case of having children, 42 percent of respondents said it was not important, while 44 percent said marriage was not important. Women were slightly more likely than men to say that their job or career is important to achieving a feeling of fulfillment, at 74 percent compared to their counterparts’ 69 percent.  Men were slightly more likely to say having children (29 perc...