About the Universal Living Wage

We recommend The Universal Living Wage Whitepaper, the comprehensive guide to an idea whose time has come, written by House the Homeless co-founder Richard R. Troxell, which can be read online or downloaded. There is a lot to absorb, but the basic ideas are easily...

Veteran Suicides. Again.

Unfortunately, more still needs to be said about military servicemembers and suicide. The whole subject is fraught with political and emotional minefields. We discussed the “won’t accept help” trope, and the terrible barrier created by “bad paper” discharges that...

The Vietnam War Legacy

In the previous post, we learned that the servicemember suicide rate is not quite as high as what people go around saying. Forget about the frequently and erroneously cited 22 suicides per day — it’s “only” 20.6 per day. That is also an upsetting statistic, especially...

Of Servicemembers and Suicide

Last time we talked about some of the incidents described in Richard R. Troxell’s book, Looking Up at the Bottom Line. Back in 1989, there was talk of decommissioning Bergstrom Air Force Base, right outside Austin. Richard set out to gather support for the idea of...

In Austin, Stuff Just Got Real

Apple Computer Inc. announced its plan to build a new billion-dollar facility in Austin, TX, which will practically triple the number of its employees in the city. When that is achieved, Apple will be Austin’s largest private employer. (The rewards and incentives...