The Top 5: From election fundraising emails to Japan's birthrate
Welcome to the latest edition of the Top 5 articles we’ve read this week. Each week, we read dozens of articles in the hope we find essays and reporting that speak to big ideas, trends, future looks, and incredible human stories. We hope you enjoy these articles, and do always let us know if you have a suggestion or a recommendation!
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The Top 5 articles for your week:
“The presidential campaigns don’t need your $5” (Substack)
Because Lee Drutman examines the detrimental effects political fundraising has had on the system as a whole.
Can you chip in $5? $3? I'm begging you. Final deadline. Last Chance. $1? It stinks, BIG time. You deserve an explanation.
Yes, these are all political fundraising email subject lines. And yes, it’s out of control. And yes, it needs to stop. This barrage of emotionally manipulative emails (not to mention the creepy-stalker texts, and the desperate social media) is doing active damage to our democracy. It’s making self-governance feel like a marketing scam. It’s amplifying negativity, fear, and anger — not emotions you want to double down on if you care about democratic health. And it’s turned our political parties into marketing consultant collectives, eroding their core role in democratic representation.
“I’m running out of ways to explain how bad this is” (The Atlantic)
Because Charlie Warzel looks at the willfulness — the willing participants — of our current misinformation crisis.
Even in a decade marred by online grifters, shameless politicians, and an alternative right-wing-media complex pushing anti-science fringe theories, the events of the past few weeks stand out for their depravity and nihilism. As two catastrophic storms upended American cities, a patchwork network of influencers and fake-news peddlers have done their best to sow distrust, stoke resentment, and interfere with relief efforts. But this is more than just a misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories and public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts: first, that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second, that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants.
“Can the Government Get People to Have More Babies?” (NYT)
Because Motoko Rich explores the policy efforts of the Japanese government and other governments that are targeting the country’s birthrate.
It’s hard to imagine that this pro-wedding push will succeed in boosting the birthrate any more than Japan’s last three decades of initiatives have. In the end, it seems that governments can only do so much… Influencing those choices may be beyond the reach of traditional government policy. For most people in affluent countries, having children is deeply personal, touching on our values, what kinds of communities we want to be part of, how we view the future. Sometimes it’s also about luck. “Policies cannot find you the best possible partner you dreamed of at the right time,” Mr. Sobotka pointed out.
“Willful ignorance of the male suicide crisis” (Substack)
Because Richard Reeves examines what he calls the “male suicide crisis,” and its contours might surprise you.
Up to 2010, the rise in male suicide was being driven by men in middle age, as the green lines in the middle of the chart below show. But…the main story has been one of rising suicide rates among men aged 15 to 34.
“My Accidental Day Care” (The Cut)
Because Atossa Araxia Abrahamian describes how she set up a temporary daycare in her home after her daycare shut down.
For the past five years, the national conversation around child care has revolved around its cost. But child care is not just preposterously expensive; it’s also a difficult and unforgiving business to run, especially for those doing it by the book. Larger child-care centers and private-equity-backed chains might be able to afford to hire professionals to handle compliance, but for small operations — which are often run by immigrant women — the time and money aren’t there to wrangle building inspectors and licensors, fill out paperwork (which is not always in the owners’ first language), and launch the pressure campaign to get it all done quickly.