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My husband and I moved from Hamburg, Germany to a small Italian town in August.
The town offers homes for 1 euro and we were worried about the poor reputation these places have.
However, we took the risk and we’re so glad we did.
My husband and I became interested in the 1-euro housing schemes in Italy last year but were concerned about investing time and money into a house in a village that was dying out.
We are in our early 30s and had read online that the catch to these 1-euro homes was that they’re usually falling apart and located in towns that are basically desolate retirement homes with little to no businesses.
We were coming from Hamburg, Germany, which has a population of 2 million and were nervous about what life would be like and being lonely in one of these small Italian towns.
However, after visiting some properties in one of these towns, we decided to take the risk, and it was worth it.
In the end, we avoided the 1-euro homes and bought a farmhouse for 29,000 euros, about $30,400, instead. Our worries about being lonely in a run-down town quickly disappeared after we arrived.
We were pleasantly surprised by how lively our town was
We moved to Sant’Elia a Pianisi in August when the town is lively with events.
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
We moved to Sant’Elia a Pianisi, a village with about 1,500 residents in southern Italy.
When we arrived in August, there were festivals every day and night. There were parades, concerts, festivals with free food and drinks, sword fighting, and fire-breathing shows.
It felt surreal, moving to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Italy, yet hearing English and German everywhere we went.
Live music shows were common throughout August.
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
Sitting at the local Irish pub, we were surrounded by older US Americans who had left during a diaspora between the ’40s and ’70s, when many Italians ended up in the US or Germany for work.
Now, as they age, many have returned to their hometown to enjoy retirement. Their relatives also come to visit and explore their heritage.
Many still have family homes here in the village and donate money to keep the village running well while they’re away. This contributes to lovely projects, including handicap-inclusive playgrounds, parks, and holy places.
In August, we also met a lot of young people who have left the town for university or better work opportunities. Many expressed a longing to return to Sant’Elia and hope that the increase in remote work availability will allow them to come back sooner rather than later.
The town quiets down after August but is still full of life
Sant’Elia a Pianisi has plenty of parks and recreational spots to enjoy the outdoors.
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
We were afraid Sant’Elia would be a ghost town after August. To be honest, it did become much quieter, but not as much as we had anticipated.
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There are still parades every month. The three restaurants are quieter but still full on Saturday nights with live music and sometimes karaoke.
When hanging my laundry outside on the clothesline, I hear children screeching and giggling. There are families, both young and old, and they are all so kind and warm.
Most people in town gather at an outdoor market once a week, which offers fresh cheeses, vegetables, fruits, plants, and new and used clothing and shoes.
We can buy these items any day of the week at the multiple little grocery stores, bakeries, butchers, and clothing stores in town, but the market also offers the opportunity to socialize with other residents.
We don’t speak Italian, but can still communicate
Everyone in town makes us feel welcome.
Courtesy of Callie Riemann
My husband and I are learning Italian, but neither of us would say we speak it yet. That doesn’t stop the townspeople from wanting us to feel welcome.
We use what little broken Italian we know, and they accommodate with their own broken English and German.
When the language barrier becomes too tough, we resort to hand gestures or a quick game of charades to get our point across.
Words aren’t always necessary, though.
Many of our new neighbors have given us presents, from squashes and pomegranates to homemade cheeses and olive oil.
We feel very welcome and are happy to be part of this community.
We’re not far from the city
If we want more action and entertainment, we don’t have to go far.
The nearest city, Campobasso, has a population of about 47,500 and is a half-hour drive away.
One downside is the drive itself. It’s a windy one through the mountains with a lot of sharp turns and steep hills. Almost all of our friends we’ve driven through it wanted to throw up by the end.
Campobasso, though, offers a beautiful historical center, shopping malls, nightclubs, movie theaters, markets, museums, and cultural events.
Even without Campobasso, there is never a dull moment. I recently joined an expat Facebook Group for the region where people post daily about coming wine and food festivals, parades, and musical performances in their towns.
Sant’Elia is a small town in a small region of Italy, but we have found everything we could have ever wanted from this community.
The European Union has finalized plans to build a satellite network to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink.
The $11 billion Iris² network aims to provide high-speed internet to remote locations in Europe.
Musk has frequently clashed with European politicians and has faced scrutiny over Starlink’s role in Ukraine.
Elon Musk’s Starlink could have a new rival after the European Union confirmed it will join the race to provide high-speed internet to remote locations.
Starlink has also played a vital role in the war in Ukraine, with Ukrainian military forces relying on the service for military communications.
That reliance has caused tensions with SpaceX’s billionaire owner. In September 2023, Musk said he had denied a request to activate Starlink in Crimea, thwarting an attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
The EU is not the only one building their own Starlink rival. Amazon is working on its own network of internet-providing satellites, called Project Kuiper, with the first satellites expected to be deployed next year.
When the world followed the advice of Marie Kondo and decluttered, I did too.
I soon discovered my digital life needed to be decluttered just as much as my house once did.
A weekly routine helps me manage digital clutter so it doesn’t become overwhelming.
Like most people, I have too much stuff. But it’s not just physical stuff; the amount of digital clutter I amass is nothing short of spectacular. Between bookmarking apps, « watch later » lists, and email newsletters, it all adds up to one big mess of distraction that lingers at the edge of my subconscious and calls for my attention — attention that could be better spent engaging with the real world.
I didn’t always know that my digital stuff was a problem, but I realized my physical stuff had gotten out of control when I (finally) read Marie Kondo’s, « The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. » The book launched me into a love affair with minimalism, resulting in a complete declutter of clothing, books, old papers, and dozens of boxes of stored possessions I hadn’t touched in over a decade.
It felt amazing to wave goodbye to every load I donated, recycled, or threw away. But the invisible problem of digital clutter still weighed heavily in the back of my mind. I had to face reality: My digital life was a complete and total mess, and I was overwhelmed.
Tackling a physical declutter made me realize I had too much digital stuff
« Read later » apps were a big part of my problem. I’d been saving anything that looked even remotely interesting since my family first got a PC in 1998. As bookmarking options got more sophisticated, I tested several tools (and saved dozens of links) before settling on an organization app called Bublup.
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The app’s engaging interface, handy browser extension, and catch-all « Review Later » folder made it easy to save all types of content with a few clicks or taps. Between Bublup, the « Your Episodes » list in Spotify, and YouTube’s « Watch Later » list, I managed to stockpile links to hundreds of articles, podcasts, and videos that I intended to look at — you guessed it — some nebulous later time that rarely materialized.
Things got worse when I briefly fell down the rabbit hole of second brains and Zettelkasten, systems that promised I could reclaim some of my attention by organizing digital clutter into a magical note taking app that would somehow free my brain to make new connections between the ideas contained in what I saved. But for that to work, I had to shoulder the task of taking detailed notes on every piece of content, categorizing them, and implementing an intricate cross-referencing system that would supposedly enable me to access entire hubs of externalized knowledge at a moment’s notice instead of scrolling through endless bookmarks.
It was exhausting.
I finally had to admit that I needed a digital declutter
I started to feel like I was going nuts — until books came to my rescue once again.
Nicholas Carr’s « The Shallows, » Nir Eyal’s « Indistractable, » and Cal Newport’s « Digital Minimalism,« all opened my eyes to how my constant bouncing across content and tools was stealing attention from other, more important, areas of my life—things I truly enjoyed, like reading, knitting, and face-to-face interaction with friends. And the authors armed me with practical steps to refocus that attention on what mattered.
I dove into digital minimalism with enthusiasm, starting with Eyal’s suggestions for dumbing down my smartphone. I turned off the color, shut off notification tones and badges, and moved distracting apps to a second home screen I couldn’t access when the phone was in Focus mode. Then it was time to corral the collection of content that had run wild across my bookmarking and media apps.
It took days to go through the majority of my bookmarks, delete what I no longer wanted, and organize the rest with a system of subfolders and tags. As I had done during my physical declutter, I waved goodbye to content and apps that had long been taking up space and my fragmented attention started to unify for the first time in years. It was as if the brain I’d had when I was a kid was coming out of hibernation, the brain that could read an entire book in one sitting and had no problem staying focused on a game or craft for hours.
It felt like I was waking up.
I have to keep on top of my digital clutter every week
Is my system perfect? Of course not. But I’ve developed a weekly routine that helps me reign in digital clutter on a regular basis. Each week, I take about 30 minutes on Friday or Saturday to sort through anddelete saved content that no longer interests me. I turn the remaining content into reminders on my weekly schedule so I have something to read, watch, or listen to each day that’s actually worth my time.
I often get busy and miss a week or two of digital cleanout. But learning about digital minimalism and doing a digital declutter has helped me become more focused—and think more seriously about how I spend my time and attention.
Last fall, stars assembled in London at the over-the-top clubstaurant Lavo to celebrate one of their own. Janet Jackson smiled in a velvet booth with Idris Elba. The supermodel Naomi Campbell, the evening’s host, posed in a black dress.
At the center of it all was Sean « Diddy » Combs in a leather jacket and Cartier sunglasses cutting into a bright red cake featuring artwork from his latest release. It was the mogul’s 54th birthday party, as well as a celebration of his « The Love Album. » As far as partygoers and paparazzi could tell, he was on top of the world.
Since his rise to fame in the late 1990s as a rapper and producer, Combs had built a business empire and become one of the richest and most well-connected entertainers of all time.
Behind the scenes that November, though, Combs’ life was about to start crumbling. Negotiations were failing between Combs and the R&B singer Cassie Ventura, his ex who was on the brink of going public with details of their relationship.
Exactly one week after his star-studded party, the tensions bubbling under the surface boiled over when Ventura sued Combs. The lawsuit alleged a cycle of physical abuse, as well as rape by Combs, who Ventura also said forced her to have sex with sex workers.
Combs’ lawyers alleged that her lawyers tried to extort $30 million in exchange for stopping a tell-all book about their 10-year relationship last year.
He eventually apologized to Ventura after CNN released surveillance footage of him physically abusing her at a hotel in 2016. He settled the lawsuit and, at the time, denied any wrongdoing — a stance he has maintained amid a flurry of subsequent allegations — but it marked the beginning of a year that turned his world upside down.
Over the next 12 months, Combs went from being one of the richest music moguls in history, known for his wide network in the entertainment industry and business savvy, to being behind bars, facing a criminal indictment, dozens of civil lawsuits, and an empire in decline.
Combs’ freedom, reputation, and finances are all in jeopardy. If he’s found guilty of criminal charges, it would mean one of the most celebrated entertainers is also a heinous criminal.
« He looked like he was the king of the world — as flossy as possible, blinged out, with the family, and everything’s good, » Kenny Hull, a reality show director who worked on the second iteration of « Making the Band, » which featured Combs, told Business Insider about the last time he saw Combs, a few years ago at a park in Los Angeles.
« From the top to the absolute bottom, » he added. « Canceled and done. »
Combs has vehemently and consistently denied all accusations of sexual assault and sex trafficking since Ventura’s lawsuit was filed, and each time a new allegation has been made against him.
« Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man, woman, adult or minor, » lawyers for Combs told BI.
A birthday behind bars
Sean « Diddy » Combs cutting a cake during a birthday party before his one at Lavo.
Combs celebrated his 55th birthday not at a luxe international club but at the notorious Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, where, a person previously told BI, he was sharing a dormitory with the crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
Instead of flowing Champagne or DeLeón, a jailhouse dinner was served on Combs’ November birthday, consisting of Salisbury steak or black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes, and green beans. There was no partying with A-listers, though he did receive a phone call from his kids.
Combs has been in jailpretrial sincehe was arrested in September, following a monthslong investigation that led to a grand jury indictment on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution for allegedly causing victims and paid sex workers to cross state lines.
The Bad Boy Records founder faces anywhere from 15 years to life in prison on a federal indictment alleging that for decades, he used violence, threats, and drugs to coerce women into sexual performances, including at elaborately planned, dayslong parties called « freak offs. »
And more criminal charges may be coming, as prosecutors have said grand jurors are weighing a new indictment that could include allegations of obstruction of justice. Prosecutors allege that Combs has used phone accounts belonging to other people held at the jail to contact family members and associates and enlist them to plant negative stories about his accusers and funnel payments to a witness.
They also say agents recovered three AR-15 rifles with defaced serial numbers when search warrants were executed in March at Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles and at a Florida airport. And in September, when Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt, a five-star hotel in midtown Manhattan, they recovered bags of pink powder that prosecutors said in September they believed contained ecstasy and other drugs. Prosecutors have not revealed the results of a drug test they said was conducted in September.
« No condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community, » including of witnesses and prospective jurors, US District Judge Arun Subramanian wrote in the most recent bail denial, issued the day before Thanksgiving.
An avalanche of lawsuits
Attorney Marc Agnifilo represents Combs in his criminal case.
Just two weeks after Combs was arrested and subsequently locked up at the Brooklyn jail, the Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee held a press conference to announce that his firm was representing 120 people accusingCombs of sexual misconduct.
« We are going to follow this evidence wherever it takes us. We will find the silent accomplices. We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors, » Buzbee said of his legal offensive.
Since Ventura’s bombshell November 2023 lawsuit, more than 30 civil lawsuits have been filed accusing Combs of sexual abuse, including about 20 from Buzbee’s clients, all listed as John Doe or Jane Doe.
« It feels really good to know he’s behind bars, » Adria English, who is not a Buzbee client, told BI. She worked as a dancer at Combs’ famous white parties and filed a lawsuit in July accusing him of sex trafficking. « What we’re having to speak of already sounds like we’re lying — it already sounds like a movie because it’s so horrible, » she said. « It’s so disgusting. »
Attorneys for Combs pointed BI to a statement previously released in response to English’s lawsuit, saying in part: « No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted, or sex trafficked anyone. »
The « I’ll Be Missing You » rapper has been accused by both men and women of rape, sexual assault, and lacing drinks with drugs. Over half a dozen of the lawsuits allege the abuse of boys and girls between 10 and 17 years old. Four lawsuits allege that sexual attacks happened at Combs’ famed A-list white parties throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, and two of those four lawsuits allege teenagers were victimized.
Timeline of events
Earlier this month, a woman accused the rapper Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, of raping her with Combs when she was 13 years old at a party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. An unnamed plaintiff originally filed the lawsuit in October, identifying Carter only as « Celebrity A. »
Carter, in a statement through the X account of his entertainment company, Roc Nation, denied the allegations, calling them « heinous » and accusing Buzbee, the plaintiff’s lawyer, of trying to « blackmail » him.
Attorneys for Combs continue to call all the lawsuits brought by Buzbee publicity grabs.
« Mr. Buzbee’s lawsuit against Jay-Z and Mr. Combs and the recent extortion lawsuit Jay-Z brought against Mr. Buzbee exposes Mr. Buzbee’s barrage of lawsuits against Mr. Combs for what they are: shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract payments from celebrities who fear having lies spread about them, just as lies have been spread about Mr. Combs, » attorneys for Combs told BI Thursday.
The accuser in the lawsuit filed against Combs and Carter said in a recent interview with NBC News that there were some inconsistencies in her story but that she stood by the allegations.
Combs’ lawyers are challenging the claims in at least seven lawsuits, which are ongoing. He has not respondedin court to the lawsuits brought by Buzbee, which were all filed after his arrest.
A Los Angeles entertainment attorney, Camron Dowlatshahi, who’s not involved in the lawsuits against Combs, told BI that though the rapper is still considered wealthy, litigating each of these cases through trial and potentially being exposed to multimillion-dollar judgments « does not seem prudent. »
« Each of the lawsuits piggy-back on the other, and witnesses will be plenty, » Dowlatshahi, a partner at the law firm Mills Sadat Dowlat, said.
Dowlatshahi said that lawsuits typically settle before trial and that he anticipated the same in Combs’ case.
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« Diddy will have to be strategic, however, in which cases he settles first and for how much, » Dowlatshahi said.
Down with Diddy’s empire
Combs’ ventures include his lifestyle brand, Sean John. He’s seen here arriving at Saks Fifth Avenue to hand-deliver the Unforgivable fragrance in 2005.
Evan Agostini/Getty Images
As the allegations against Combs have piled up, so have his legal bills.
Combs was once estimated to be worth $820 million, according to Forbes. He’d created an assortment of lucrative revenue drivers that contributed to regular eight-figure annual paydays, including a deal with Diageo; his lifestyle brand, Sean John; a record label; and a music catalog.
One by one, those income streams have dried up.
When the civil lawsuits started, Combs was already engaged in a legal back-and-forth with Diageo, his most bankable partner.
Combs signed with the liquor giant in 2007, agreeing to be the face of Cîroc vodka in exchange for a cut of sales. The partnership became one of the most lucrative celebrity liquor deals in history, expanding further when Combs and Diageo launched DeLeón, a co-owned tequila line. Over 15 years, the company paid him nearly $1 billion, Forbes reported.
While Combs originally sued Diageo in May 2023, alleging the company did not support his ventures, the mounting sexual abuse lawsuits did him in, in the end.
« Mr. Combs is well-aware that these lawsuits make it impossible for him to continue to be the ‘face’ of anything, » Diageo lawyers wrote in a letter to a judge in December 2023.
By January, the matter was resolved. Combs received $200 million for his stake in DeLeón tequila and not a penny for his longtime work with Cîroc.
It’s a similar story for his other ventures.
Combs’ lifestyle company, Sean John, had already slipped: In 2016, he sold a majority stake in the business, which at that point included fragrances and furnishings, to Global Brands Group for $70 million, Forbes reported. Just five years later, Global Brands Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Combs bought back the business for $7.55 million, just over 10% of what it was once worth.
The clothing line’s website has gone defunct, its Instagram scrapped, and it is no longer sold at Macy’s, once the exclusive home of the brand’s sportswear line — and one of its last remaining retailers. The department store, which was accused by one of Buzbee’s clients of covering up a 2008 sexual attack by Combs, did not comment on whether the removal of his Sean John line had to do with the compounding lawsuits. Macy’s didn’t respond to the allegations of covering up a sexual assault in court or to a request for comment about them from BI.
The disintegration of Combs’ entertainment businesses, though, was a direct reaction to his mounting legal problems.
Soon after Ventura filed her lawsuit, Combs stepped down as chair of Revolt, the cable network and media company he cofounded. By June, he’d given up his stake. A Hulu reality show that was supposed to follow Combs and his family was scrapped. Any chance of his being able to cash out and sell his music catalog is slim.
« There are so many lost opportunities, » Clayton Durant, a professor who teaches music business at Long Island University’s Roc Nation School, told BI in October. « There is no way a brand is touching Diddy — probably forever. »
With no moneymaking on the table, Combs has taken to trying to sell the assets he does have.
Earlier this year, he listed his Los Angeles mansion in the tony Holmby Hills for $61.5 million. His private jet, LoveAir, is also listed for sale, and while he awaits a buyer, he’s been renting it out.
It’s not clear how much use he will have for it anyway, at least in the near future.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, Combs lost his third application to be freed on $50 million bail.
Subramanian ordered that he remain held pending his May 5 trial, citing the rap mogul’s history of violence and of contacting and threatening prospective witnesses.
« Diddy’s been the ultimate puppet master for the last 30 years, and people wanted to say something … they’ve been too afraid, » English, the dancer who accused Combs in a lawsuit of sex trafficking, told BI. « But now because of the raids, everybody’s about to be exposed, regardless, so it’s going to come out. »
The American dream — like a beloved pair of pants you left in the dryer too long — is shrinking.
The idealized image of American life we know today was crystallized in the country’s collective imagination in the 1930s. Since then, the idea that anyone can obtain a life that has the house with the white picket fence, 2.5 children, a lucrative career at an office that’s a reasonable distance away, and the occasional trip to an enviable vacation spot has loomed large in nearly every facet of cultural and political life.
There’s just one problem: The once expansive vision is getting smaller. Not only is it harder to grab a piece of it, like a bag of chips or a roll of toilet paper that has less substance every time you buy it, but even nominally achieving the dream is leaving people unsatisfied. Americans are having fewer kids, their houses are getting smaller, they’re schlepping further to work, and they’re spending less time on vacation.
Americans are taking notice of the diminishing returns. Among the 8,709 US adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center from April 8 to 14, 41% said that achieving the American dream was once possible but no longer. That’s particularly true for younger Americans; 18- to 29-year-olds were the most likely to say that the American dream was never possible, and only 39% said that it’s still possible. Their millennial counterparts felt similarly, though they were slightly more bullish on the possibility of the American dream.
At the same time, Americans are increasingly less satisfied with their personal lives, Gallup polling from January found. The share of Americans who are « very satisfied » with their personal lives has been plummeting, the poll found, and sits near record lows — other times it’s gotten this bad were during the economic crisis of 2008 and its fallout in the following years. And even among those who might have achieved the American dream — higher earners with college degrees — life satisfaction has slipped.
Call it the shrinkflation of the American dream.
The central element of the American dream is owning a house. Having a roof over your head is the cornerstone of security and stability; research has found homeowners are less stressed than their renter counterparts, and beyond having a place that they can call their own, they have growing equity. But nowadays, the homes that many Americans live in rarely have enough room for a big dog — much less a picket fence.
In 2013, the median square footage of a new single-family housing unit was about 2,460. In 2015, new homes peaked at about 2,470 square feet — and then spent the next six years shrinking. In 2021, homes started to slowly get bigger again, and then they once again constricted. By 2023, the figure had fallen to about 2,180 square feet. An analysis by the National Association of Home Builders found that the share of single-family homes built with two bedrooms or fewer hit its highest level since 2012 — and the share of new homes built with four bedrooms fell to its lowest level since 2012.
Of course, homes getting a little smaller isn’t necessarily a bad thing — many advocates for increasing the housing supply argue that the dedication to giant homes has made it tougher to build the number of new units that the country needs. But shrinking homes are coupled with another biting reality: Americans are paying more for less. In the same period that Americans have seen their homes shrink, home prices have grown by nearly $200,000. The median listing price per square foot was $127 in 2016; by 2024, that rose to $224 — meaning Americans were shelling out more per square foot, even as their square footage decreased. By one measure, Americans now need to work 110 hours a month to be able to afford their mortgages — meaning mortgages eat up the bulk of their earnings.
With those prices, it’s no wonder first-time homebuyers are older than ever. The National Association of Realtors found that the median age of first-time homebuyers hit 38 in 2024, a record high. In 1981, the median age of a first-time buyer was 29; in 2014, it was 31.
It’s not all peaches and rainbows for American renters, either. The median rent price in the US is $2,035, Zillow found. Rent.com, meanwhile, found that median rental asking prices hit about $1,619 in October. That’s nearly a $300 increase from May 2019. So if renters are paying more, surely they’re still at least getting some bang for their buck? Nope, apartments are getting smaller, too. In 2016, the median square footage of a new unit in a building that had two or more units was 1,105 square feet. Apartments have been shrinking since then: In 2023, new units were clocking in at a median of 1,020 square feet — and the measure reached its lowest recorded level in 2021 as housing prices and demand soared.
A house is just a house until there are people in it; only then, the saying goes, is it a home. But increasingly, American homes are occupied by fewer people. Not only is there a slight rise in single people buying a house, but also the pitter-patter of babies’ feet is becoming less common in the hallways of American homes these days. The share of homebuyers without a child under 18 in the house rose to a new high of 73%. That comes as Americans are having fewer kids: The average number of births per woman in the US has fallen from nearly four in 1960 to 1.7 in 2022.
It should come as no surprise that Americans are having fewer children given the economic and social pressures working against them. If it’s hard for anyone to break into the ranks of homeowners, it’s even more difficult for parents. Housing costs aren’t the only deterrent, young parents are also floundering amid rising childcare costs and the loss of the social connections that are critical to raising kids. At the same time, more Americans seem to be on board with choosing to go child-free. DINKs — double-income, no-kid couples — have been on the cultural rise. But just because it’s harder for people with kids and more acceptable to forgo them doesn’t mean that people are giving up on starting a family. Many Americans want to have children or have even more kids, but it’s out of reach.
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Karen Benjamin Guzzo, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who’s researched the gap between the number of children Americans intend to have versus their ultimate childbearing, told me that having kids is often seen as the « last step » in accomplishing the American dream. You go to college, you line up a good job, you get married, you buy a house, and then you fill it with kids. There’s a problem, though. « Every step along the way has become less and less predictable, » she said.
Guzzo’s research has found, in part, that Americans still expect to have children — they just don’t actually have them. The way Guzzo describes it is many Americans want kids, but with an asterisk: They want kids if they can find a good partner, a good job with family leave and enough pay to afford childcare, and so on.
« People need to feel confident that the next 25 years of their lives and the world in which their children will be raised and growing and becoming adults on their own. They need to feel confident about those, » Guzzo said. « And we do not do a good job right now in the United States of making people feel confident about their futures. »
Part of the American dream is the ability to actually enjoy it. You can come home for dinner, spend a nice evening with your family, and maybe enjoy some ice cream in front of the TV before heading to bed at a reasonable hour.
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Unfortunately, for many people, the free time is getting sapped by a mind-numbing commute. The average travel time to work in 1990 was 22.4 minutes one way. By 2023, it rose to 26.8 minutes. That may not sound like a lot, but that adds up to nearly 4.5 hours a week just commuting to work, or about 10 days a year, assuming they went in every workday. Even if they’re going into the office three days a week, that’s still nearly 2.7 hours a week commuting, or the equivalent of almost 6 full days a year. Meanwhile, in 1990, Americans spent just about 3.7 hours a week commuting — about 44 minutes less a week. That’s a whole episode of « Real Housewives. » Even on a small scale, research has found that every minute added to a commute can reduce one’s satisfaction with both their job and their leisure time. Most Americans commuting are doing so by car, which can also weigh on workers’ mental health — and how well they’re sleeping.
And as more Americans have moved away from urban cores — perhaps in pursuit of buying a house in cheaper areas — they’re living farther from work. Young families, in particular, have fled larger urban areas and are finding themselves in the farthest reaches of suburbia. If you want the American dream of that larger, cheaper house, you might be paying for it in minutes stuck behind the wheel.
Reveling in the American dream also includes unwinding away from that house and job. But even as more Americans have access to paid vacation, that doesn’t mean they’re taking it. In July 1980, over 10 million working Americans were on vacation. At the height of the pandemic, that number had halved. And even as more Americans went on vacation in July post-2020, the number of workers vacationing in July has essentially plateaued over the past few years.
As The Washington Post found in an extensive analysis of eroding vacation time, some of that might be chalked up to another form of shrinkflation: Workers saving their vacation days for when they’re feeling sick. In a very Dickensian twist, Americans might not be going on vacation because they’re too busy being sick or caring for their ill kids instead.
All of this is not to say that the American dream has gone extinct, but there’s a marked shift from the idea that things will get better for each successive generation. In a country where growth, expansion, and constantly improving your lot — and your family’s lot — are North Stars, a diminishing and sickly American dream is a bit of an existential downer.
After all, in a March 2023 survey of 1,019 American adults by The Wall Street Journal and NORC, 78% of respondents said they were not confident that life would be better for their kids’ generation. The share not confident their kids’ lives will be better has soared over the past few decades; in 2000 just 42% said the same. In short: Many Americans are feeling like the dream is slipping through their fingers.
Guzzo said that we’re seeing a bifurcation of the American dream. For the ultrawealthy, the ability to accumulate the markers of the dream has never been easier. The top 1% holds just over 13% of all real estate by dollar value in the US, while the bottom 50% holds just about 10%. And, as the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta recounted in its December Beige Book round-up, lower- and middle-income consumers are scaling back their vacation plans; they’re renting homes for multiple families and eating in rather than splashing out on hotels or fancy restaurants. Instead, the strength in tourism spending comes from those higher-income consumers exploring and going on cruises. For Americans in the middle, those who might have the college degree and career that could set them on that trajectory, the dream is still possible, though it may come later in life. But Guzzo said others, especially younger men without college degrees, feel the American dream has been pulled out from beneath them.
At the same time, there’s a bittersweet parallel running alongside the shrinking of the American dream. For decades, things like homeownership or formal recognition of marriage were out of grasp — and, in some cases, expressly forbidden — for many marginalized groups. It’s only in recent history that LGBTQ+ Americans and Americans of color have been able to somewhat catch up to their straight and white peers. But now that the American dream is within reach for these people, it’s already shrinking.
Juliana Kaplan is a senior labor and inequality reporter on Business Insider’s economy team.
Russia’s head of chemical weapons was killed on Tuesday.
The general, Igor Kirillov, died in an explosion when a bomb in a scooter in Moscow went off.
His assistant also died in the attack, the country’s investigative committee said.
A high-ranking Russian general responsible for Russia’s chemical weapons was killed on Tuesday by a bomb in a scooter.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter parked on a street in Moscow, the country’s investigative committee said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday.
« According to the investigation, on the morning of December 17, an explosive device was detonated in a scooter parked next to the entrance of a residential building on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow, » the statement said.
« As a result of the incident, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Igor Kirillov and his assistant were killed, » it added.
The committee said it had opened a criminal case into the murder of two servicemen in Moscow.
The statement said investigators and forensic experts were working at the scene.
The Russian investigations committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Amazon is delaying full RTO for some employees due to office capacity issues.
The policy required employees to work from the office five days a week, beginning January 2.
Amazon has encountered workspace capacity issues in the past.
Amazon is delaying the start of its strict new RTO policy for some employees because the company doesn’t have enough office space in certain locations, Business Insider has learned.
The company’s real estate team recently started notifying employees that they can continue following their current in-office guidance until workspaces are ready with delays stretching to as late as May, according internal Amazon notifications viewed by BI.
Impacted locations include Atlanta, Houston, Nashville, and New York, the notifications showed. An Amazon spokesperson said buildings will be ready for the majority of Amazon employees by January 2.
Earlier this year, Amazon ordered employees to start working from the office five days a week. beginning January 2. The company has said this will improve collaboration and bring other benefits. CEO Andy Jassy, in a memo announcing the mandate, said Amazon the decision to « further strengthen » its culture and teams.
Some staff were upset by the change and have argued that remote work provides more flexibility. The policy five-day-a-week policy is stricter than at some Amazon rivals and, by some accounts, stricter than Amazon’s office-work policy before the pandemic.
This isn’t the first time office capacity constraints have delayed Amazon’s RTO plans. When the company last year ordered employees to start working in the office at least three days a week, many of its buildings weren’t ready to accommodate all of those employees.
In internal guidelines viewed by BI, Amazon told employees when the new five-day RTO policy was first announced in September that they should plan to comply by January 2 whether or not they have assigned workspaces.
« For the vast majority of employees, assigned workspaces will be available by January 2, 2025, » the guidance stated. « If your assigned workspace isn’t ready by January 2, we still expect everyone to begin fully working from the office by that date. »
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Advertising took over the streaming-TV experience this year, and it’ll only get bigger next year.
Interactive ads that try to get viewers to shop or take other actions are gaining traction.
This article is part of « Transforming Business, » a series on the must-know leaders and trends impacting industries.
It’s back to the future in Hollywood.
Streaming is starting to look like the TV days of old. Entertainment for the masses is back. Bundles are making it easier to consolidate subscriptions.
And ads seem to be everywhere.
Netflix, Disney+, and Max — which all started ad-free — now have cheaper ad-supported tiers. Amazon turned on ads in Prime Video this year, making advertising de facto for more than 100 million viewers in the US in one fell swoop.
According to the analytics firm Antenna, these cheaper versions are gaining traction with viewers, too. In May, most new paying subscribers to five major streamers were choosing ad-supported tiers — a year earlier, this was true for only two streamers.
On Disney’s latest earnings call, execs said that about 60% of new subscribers in the US were opting for its ad-supported tier, which accounted for 37% of its total US subscribers.
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Ad-supported TV viewing also is on the rise through free services like Fox’s Tubi, Paramount’s Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel. According to Nielsen, those services plus YouTube made up 14.8% of viewing in July, up from 12.5% a year earlier.
« What’s old is new again, » said Jonathan Miller, a veteran media executive and chief executive of Integrated Media Co., which invests in digital media.
Miller sees ad tiers as a validation of the dual revenue streams that long supported cable. « Advertising and subscriptions have always been a successful model, » he said.
Streaming ads are here to stay because — along with bundling, cheaper programming, and password-sharing crackdowns — they’re one of the ways streamers can help make themselves sustainable.
Ads have also begun to directly shape the content streamers offer. Streamers are showing more sports and other live programming because of the big audiences and advertisers they attract.
For example, Netflix’s highly anticipated Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on November 15 was a win for the streamer despite some tech glitches. Why? Because it showed Netflix’s ability to draw huge audiences at once; it said that as many as 60 million households tuned in. That large audience bodes well for Netflix’s NFL games on Christmas and its live WWE programming set to debut in January.
Viewers’ tolerance for ads will be increasingly tested
Streamers that dipped a toe in the ad space are looking to wade in.
The ad load — or ad volume per hour of entertainment — has crept up over the past year, according to the measurement firm MediaRadar. There was an average of six minutes of ads per hour in September across eight leading ad-supported streamers, up by 9% from January 2023, when Netflix and Disney had just entered the ad-supported game. That’s still far lower than cable, where ad loads can push an eye-watering 15 minutes or more an hour. Viewers are also more likely to tolerate ads in live sports because people are used to them being part of that content.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Charissa Thompson, and Tony Gonzalez host Amazon Prime Video’s « Thursday Night Football. »
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Amazon
Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery recently said they’d start showing more ads to their streaming viewers in 2025, while emphasizing that their ad loads were lower than their competitors.
« On the ad-load side, we are light, » WBD’s streaming chief, JB Perrette, said of the streamer Max during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. « We have a very light ad load compared to everyone else in the market, so there’s room to grow on the capacity side. »
The industry consensus is that streaming ad loads won’t become a throwback to cable, though — at least not anytime soon.
For one thing, it’s a buyer’s market. Amazon flooded the market with ad inventory, which depressed ad prices for everyone. Streamers aren’t incentivized to add too much more ad inventory because it’ll just drive the price down more. Some advertisers are also wary of annoying viewers who are still getting used to seeing ads in streaming.
« The supply has grown significantly over the last few years, » said Maureen Bosetti, the chief investment officer for Mediabrands. « It’s created a marketplace for marketers. »
Makers of streaming video ads are also becoming more ambitious. It’s not enough for an ad to be seen — they’ll try to get viewers to take action, whether by clicking a QR code or dropping a featured product in their shopping cart. These interactive ads could get higher price tags at a time when streaming ad prices have come down.
« As a consumer, I’m seeing more of them, » Jessica Brown, a managing director of digital investment at GroupM, said of interactive streaming ads. « We’re getting more pitches from the streaming partners. You can measure success in a different way. »
Warner Bros. Discovery recently rolled out two such formats. « Shop with Max » identifies items in TV shows and films and matches them with relevant advertiser products that viewers can shop while they watch. « Moments » uses AI to figure out themes, sentiments, and on-screen elements that line up tonally with the advertiser’s message.
Fubo recently announced four ad formats, including ones that show trivia questions or polls and product carousels. Fubo said such ads made people 47% more likely to purchase something compared with standard video ads.
« A big objective we have is to make a majority of ads have some form of interactive or engaging feature, » Krishan Bhatia, an NBCUniversal exec who was hired by Amazon to lead its Prime Video ads push, said at a recent event. « What brands love about it is not just the fact that you generate a potential purchase off it but people are spending more time with your brands. »
Donald Trump said he’s planning on suing a newspaper over an election poll he didn’t like.
It’s in keeping with a flurry of recent threats — and suits — Trump has filed against the media.
That can create a landscape where publishers will have to be extra careful about what they say.
A pretty good journalism rule of thumb: Someone threatening to sue someone isn’t news.
Literally anyone can say they’re going to sue someone, for any reason. But many people who say they’re going to sue someone don’t follow through. So, the argument goes, you should wait until they actually file a suit, for real, to report on it.
Then there’s Donald Trump. He also threatens to sue people — and the press specifically — all the time. But sometimes, he goes ahead with the threat. He’s also going to be the most powerful person in the world, again, starting next month.
That’s in part because Trump, who has a long career of threatening media organizations, seems to be ramping up his legal energy. Over the weekend, he extracted a $15 million settlement from ABC News over a George Stephanopoulos interview from March that Trump said was defamatory. He’s also filed a suit against CBS over the way its « 60 Minutes » program handled an interview with Kamala Harris, claiming the network is guilty of election interference.
Plenty of legal experts think Trump has no chance of defeating CBS in court — « The First Amendment was drafted to protect the press from just such litigation, » attorney Floyd Abrams told CNN this fall. But that same cohort didn’t think much of Trump’s chances against ABC.
Just as important: The threats Trump is making— along with those made by others in his circle, like Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to run the FBI, who has promised to « come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections » — seem to be a strategy.
As The New York Times’s David Enrich notes, those suits and threatened suits seem like the « latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage. »
It’s true that the First Amendment makes it hard to win suits against journalists, and everyone else in the United States, over what they say or write. Even more so when the person filing the suit is a public figure. And Donald Trump may be the most public figure there is.
But fighting lawsuits — even those without much chance of winning — can be very costly. (For its part, The Des Moines Register’s parent company has said a lawsuit would be without merit.) And while it’s possible for publishers who win suits Trump files against them to charge him for their legal fees — like The New York Times successfully did this year — you still have to have the money, and willpower, for the fight.
Perhaps just as important: It’s one thing to fight Donald Trump in court when he’s a private citizen. It’s quite another when he’s the president of the United States and can make life difficult for you or your company regardless of what happens in the courtroom.
All of which is something you now have to think about if you’re in the business of journalism. Not just when Trump, or someone in his circle, complains about your reporting — but before you publish or air it. That seems to be what Trump would like.
Last week, Jim Carrey said he came out of retirement to star in « Sonic the Hedgehog 3 » because of money.
A day later, he clarified to Comicbook.com that he wasn’t really retired, just « power-resting » between projects.
More older Americans are unretiring — either out of financial necessity or to stay active.
Jim Carrey, 62, walked back on his comments about coming out of retirement because he was strapped for cash.
At the London premiere of « Sonic the Hedgehog 3 » on December 10, Carrey told the Associated Press that he signed on for the new film because « I bought a lot of stuff, and I need the money, frankly. »
In an interview with ComicBook.com published a day later, on December 11, the actor clarified that « it’s not really about the money. I joke about the money. »
While he acknowledged that he previously spoke about retiring, he added, « You can’t be definite about these things. »
« I said I’d like to retire, but I think I was talking more about power-resting. Because as soon as a good idea comes your way, or a group of people that you really enjoyed working with and stuff, it just — things tend to change, » he said.
Carrey added that with the « right idea, » he’s even open to reprising his role in sequels to « The Mask » or « How the Grinch Stole Christmas. »
While doing a press tour for « Sonic the Hedgehog 2 » in April 2022, Carrey told Access Hollywood that he was « fairly serious » about « retiring. »
« If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break, » Carrey said.
« Sonic the Hedgehog 3 » is Carrey’s first film since then.
Carrey isn’t the only Hollywood celebrity who has spoken about retirement.
Last week, David Letterman, 77, told GQ he wasn’t ready to retire because « retirement is a myth.«
« Retirement is nonsense. You won’t retire. The human mechanism will not allow you to retire, » Letterman said.
In response to the interviewer’s point that people do retire, the former late-night host said, « But what do they do? Sit there and wait for — give me the name of a show — ‘Judge Judy‘ to come on? »
Edelman Financial Engines’s 2024 Everyday Wealth in America survey found that 37% of the 3,008 respondentsaged 30 and above say they want their post-working life to be different from previous generations, with many saying they are seeking a more active and adventurous lifestyle.
