International: The History of Starbucks
Starbucks began by purchasing roasted beans from Peets Coffee and Teas. Peets was founded by Dutch immigrant Alfred Peets. Years later, in 1983, Howard Schulz was in Milan on business…
Software: “40% of software engineers born outside the United States”
“Some 40% of software engineers in the country are born outside the US,…” Chicago Seeks Laid Off Tech Workers With H-1B Visas for Jobs – Bloomberg Bloomberg appears to have…
Demographics: “Are demographics destiny?”
For many reasons, but especially due to the decrease in the fertility rate, we will see much more immigration in the 21st century, unlike what we have seen before. Over…
Demographics: The World’s Happiest Country nonsense
As explained in excruciating detail here, the World’s Happiest Country metric does not measure anyone’s happiness. Instead, it collects some metrics, weights them, drops them into the Stat-o-Meter, and pops…
Global: Is the world “de-globalizing” now?
Covid, and then Russia’s war on everyone, have led to numerous changes in global trade. Some argue that the multi-decade period of global trade expansion is ending and we will…
International: How Global Are We? More than you may have thought!
In the U.S., and most of the world, our societies are amazingly global, with widespread travel and trade between countries, and immigration of workers (especially) between countries. Here I summarize…
Demographics, International: Indians taking on many leadership roles in U.S. businesses
India has 5 times more people in the critical 20-29 age bracket. Stated another way, the top 20% of the young Indian cohort is the same size as that entire…
More good news: life expectancy up, poverty way down, literacy widespread
Am expecting this blog to be censored and thrown offline very soon. Passing along good news is forbidden. The estimated decline at the end is due to Covid pandemic.
International: How many Americans have lived abroad at some point?
I previously estimated between 1 in 4 and 1 in 3 have lived abroad at some point in their life. I just increased that estimate to 35-40% of U.S. residents…
Demographics: What Languages Do We Speak in the United States?
The number of people who spoke a language other than English at home nearly tripled from 1980 to 2019, but the number who spoke only English also increased. Source: What…