Word: median
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...median forecasts of five economists suggest that the economy will rebound by mid-1991, assuming that the U.S. avoids a protracted war in the Persian Gulf...
...examining the status of the clergy, The Black Church raises deeply troubling questions. The median age of black pastors in the U.S. has reached a dangerously high 52, which means that fewer young blacks are entering the ministry. Thanks to the civil rights movement, the ministry is no longer the sole redoubt of blacks with leadership aspirations. "We never had black mayors before the last 30 years," remarks Harlem Baptist Pastor Wyatt Tee Walker...
...addict and alcoholic. The two terms mean in essence the same thing: a powerless dependence upon one drug or another, whether the chemical is legal or illegal. Here boundaries blur and melt. "Responsible" adults -- fathers, mothers, bankers, Senators, solid citizens -- become dangerous aliens. Their cars fly across the median in the middle of the night. The high began as a creamy indulgence and ends as a squalid necessity, a fix. The soul begins to die. It passes over into realms of the surreal and savage, into moral blackout and passivity...
...doesn't help that over the past 25 years the cost of housing has jumped 56% and college tuitions have rocketed 87.9% in real dollars. Joseph Minarik, executive director of the congressional Joint Economic Committee estimates that the typical 30-year-old man buying a median-priced home in 1973 incurred carrying costs equal to 21% of his income. By 1987 this had risen to 40%. For the first time since World War II, home ownership among young families is declining. Complains Karen, a 26-year-old housewife in the Chicago area: "You either buy a home, both...
...crunch began with a dramatic falloff in earnings, particularly for blue- collar males. Between 1955 and 1973, the median wage of men leaped from $15,056 to $24,621. Then, quite suddenly, it started to drop. By 1987 the male wage, adjusted for inflation, was back down to $19,859, a 19% decline. To shore up family income, wives have flooded into the labor market, but their earning power is low. In 1988 the average family income was only 6% higher than in 1973, though almost twice as many wives were at work. In many households, one well-paid smokestack...