Category: Academic Analysis

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mark Robert Rank, Professor of Social Welfare, Washington University in St. Louis

Few ideas are as central to the nation’s identity as that of the American Dream.

With the 250th birthday of the United States coming up in July 2026, it’s worth stepping back to examine a concept essential to the nation’s self-image.

The term “American Dream” was actually coined in the 1930s by historian James Truslow Adams. Ever since the establishment of the Colonies, however, America has been viewed as a land where individual and collective hopes and aspirations can be realized.

From the idea of America as a shining “city on a hill” to the Declaration of Independence’s guarantee of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the nation has been premised on high aspirations. The concept of the American Dream has epitomized these hopes, and it continues to be present throughout our cultural landscape.

As a social scientist, I set out to explore what Americans thought about the American Dream in today’s society. I interviewed scores of people, from an elderly man sleeping on the street to a billionaire entrepreneur.

I wanted to know exactly how they defined the American Dream – and whether it has become harder to achieve today than in the past.

Defining the dream

From pickup trucks and lawn tractor ads to the labeling of undocumented immigrant children as Dreamers, references to the American Dream in contemporary life are ubiquitous. Washington, D.C., is now home to a brand-new, US$500 million museum, the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, devoted to celebrating the idea and its history.

It turns out that for most people I interviewed, the American Dream consists of three basic ideas.

The first is what might be called an economic bargain: If you work hard and play by the rules, you should expect to have a financially secure life. This includes owning a home, being able to afford raising kids and retiring in comfort.

Second, the American Dream is centered on hope and optimism. It is about personal progress and the belief that the nation’s best days lie ahead. It’s the idea that each generation should do better than the previous one, and that upward economic mobility is essential for bringing this about.

The third and final idea people expressed was having the freedom to pursue their hopes to reach their full potential. For many, this is the epitome of the American Dream.

At its best, the U.S. is seen as allowing individuals the freedom to live the life they want. Liberty and rugged individualism have been hallmarks of America since its beginnings, so it should come as no surprise that they are also central to the American Dream.

Economically more elusive?

Given this, has the American Dream become more or less difficult to achieve over time? Unfortunately, for a growing number of Americans, it appears to be more difficult.

First, the goal of leading an economically secure life in exchange for hard work has become more elusive. Data from the Census Bureau indicates that median wages for full-time male workers have essentially flatlined since 1973. The economy has been producing more low-wage and part-time jobs. Many of these lack benefits, such as health insurance.

Less-skilled workers, such as truck drivers and postal clerks, have actually lost ground in terms of income. At the same time, housing, medical care, child care and higher education costs have dramatically increased over the past 40 years.

What about upward mobility and the hope for each generation to do better economically than the previous one? There is some evidence that one reason the middle class is shrinking is that more people have entered upper-income tiers.

Still, younger generations will actually earn, on average, less as adults than their parents did. This is the first time in U.S. history that this is the case. The formerly taken-for-granted idea of generational progress and moving forward appears to have stalled.

Upward economic mobility for lower-income workers has also slowed over the past 50 years, making it harder to climb the ladder of opportunity.

Dissatisfied, not dreaming

Finally, what about personal freedom? Survey data indicates that greater numbers of Americans feel they have less control over their lives and futures than in the past.

For more than 20 years, Gallup has asked the question, “In this country, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?” The percentage of Americans reporting being satisfied has dropped notably over the past two decades. In 2007 it was 87%, but by 2024 it had fallen to 72%. For women, the number was even lower, declining from 85% in 2007 to 66% in 2024.

By comparison, the average for the wealthiest countries in the Gallup survey was 86%. Consequently, on all three counts it appears that the American Dream is becoming harder to achieve.

An aspirational hope

These trends are important for making sense of the polarization and general negativity found in America today. Too many Americans feel that they’ve been left behind and that the American Dream has become a distant reality.

For these Americans, the words of the late comedian and social commentator George Carlin ring true: “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

Yet the American Dream is a powerful metaphor and aspiration that continues to inspire many in this country. Among those I interviewed, there was a strong consensus that it represents the very best of what America has to offer.

There is no other country that has quite the equivalent of the American Dream. As the nation enters its next 250 years, working toward reestablishing the concept as a reality for millions of people who have fallen behind may be vital to maintaining the essence of the American promise.

Mark Robert Rank does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What is the American Dream, and has it become harder to achieve in recent years? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-american-dream-and-has-it-become-harder-to-achieve-in-recent-years-271607

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Eve Bohnett, Assistant Research Scholar, Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, University of Florida

In late 2025, Interpol coordinated a global operation across 134 nations, seizing roughly 30,000 live animals, confiscating illegal plant and timber products, and identifying about 1,100 suspected wildlife traffickers for national police to investigate.

Wildlife trafficking is one of the most lucrative illicit industries worldwide. It nets between US$7 billion and $23 billion per year, according to the Global Environment Facility, a group of nearly 200 nations as well as businesses and nonprofits that funds environmental improvement and protection projects.

People buy and sell a wide range of items, including live animals, plant powders and oils, ivory carvings and musical instruments.

Historically, enforcement has been largely reactive. There is so much global trade that fewer than 1 in 10 international cargo shipments of any kind are physically inspected. Traffickers also avoid detection by using false or generic names instead of proper species identification, employing coded language in online listings, rerouting shipments and shifting to different messaging platforms when enforcement pressure increases. Emerging digital tools are helping authorities link online monitoring, legal reference tools and on-the-ground investigations.

As a researcher at the University of Florida working at the intersection of conservation science and applied technology, I observed these advancements firsthand at an international meeting of governments and partner organizations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, often known by its acronym, CITES. This treaty – the cornerstone for international regulation of trade in endangered plants and animals – is enforced by national customs and wildlife agencies.

AI and digital tools for inspection

A huge challenge for officials seeking to prevent wildlife trafficking is knowing where to look – and then figuring out what they’ve found.

Cargo screening: Advanced X-ray screeners, similar to those used in airport security but designed for cargo, are being paired with software that helps spot unusual shapes or materials inside packages.

Trials conducted at major ports and mail processing centers in Australia have detected animals concealed in various kinds of shipments. The software does not identify species but highlights anomalies, helping inspectors decide which packages deserve closer inspection.

Assisted identification: A software program supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences uses artificial intelligence to help identify the species of animals or animal parts found in shipments. Inspectors can use chatbot-style interfaces to describe what they have found to a system trained on technical documents with detailed descriptions of a wide range of species.

This type of work can help inspectors tell the difference between closely related species whose legal protections differ. For example, trade of African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) is strictly regulated. There are different, often less stringent protections for similar-looking species, such as the Timneh parrot (Psittacus timneh) and the brown-necked parrot (Poicephalus fuscicollis).

Portable DNA testing: Enforcement efforts don’t always happen in offices and labs. One company aims to provide small, handheld kits that can detect up to five species in about 20 or 30 minutes without needing traditional lab equipment. The kits show their results on a simple strip that changes color when the DNA of a particular species appears in a sample. Conceptually, it’s similar to a pregnancy test, which changes color when a hormone is detected.

Timber identification: Handheld scanners use software to quickly identify timber species by examining the internal cellular structure of the wood. This can help to distinguish protected hardwoods from legal alternatives in regions where illegal logging is widespread, such as South America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

Background research and risk profiling

Even before wildlife-related items appear at national borders, there can be signs of illegal trafficking that technology can help identify.

Monitoring online trade: Large volumes of wildlife trafficking now occur through online transactions. To avoid detection, sellers often use vague descriptions or coded language, such as listings that omit species names entirely or use emojis instead of words. Others hide key details in images or brief text that say little about what is being sold, even just showing a photo with no description.

Anti-trafficking organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund collaborate with tech companies to scan online listings using AI and content moderation tools. Between 2018 and 2023, the tech companies blocked or removed more than 23 million listings and accounts related to protected species, including live reptiles, birds and primates, and elephant products.

Early warnings from paperwork: Shipping documents often provide early warning signs of illegal trade. Wildlife enforcement officers, transport sector personnel, government tax officers and others are using new software tools to analyze millions of manifests and permits, looking for species names that aren’t usually traded on particular routes; shipments that are unusually heavy or underpriced; and complex routing through multiple transit countries. Instead of inspecting shipments at random, these systems help enforcement agencies identify the consignments most likely to contain illegal materials.

Navigating wildlife trade laws: Enforcement officers have to navigate vast legal complexity. New tools seek to compile laws from multiple countries, helping inspectors understand regulations across export, transit and destination nations.

Using trade data to identify other species to monitor: Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a method that uses wildlife trade records to identify thousands of highly vulnerable endangered species that could benefit from stricter international trade protections and stronger law enforcement to limit exploitation.

Taken together, these devices and systems extend – but do not replace – human expertise. They help officers decide which shipments or sites to focus on, identify what they find, and share information internationally. No single technology will end wildlife trafficking, but these digital tools can enable a shift from reactive enforcement toward proactive, coordinated action, helping authorities keep pace with adaptive criminal networks.

Eve Bohnett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. New technologies are stepping up the global fight against wildlife trafficking – https://theconversation.com/new-technologies-are-stepping-up-the-global-fight-against-wildlife-trafficking-272137

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mary Magnuson, Associate Science Editor, The Conversation

Thousands of the world’s best athletes will flock to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy in February 2026 for the 25th Winter Olympics. While sports fans are focused on the athletic feats of the Olympians, science enthusiasts can also have fun watching them.

Lots of winter sports are governed by unique laws of physics – from skaters speeding across the ice to skiers and snowboarders seemingly floating through the air. The artificial snow that athletes ski or board over is an engineering feat. The Winter Olympics even have math: Mathematicians have found that luck plays a larger role in hockey games than in other sports, such as baseball, basketball and football.

To help our readers follow both the sports and the science while watching the Games this year, The Conversation U.S. has compiled a set of stories from our archive.

1. The physics of ski jumping

Olympic ski jumping is not for the faint of heart. Athletes plummet down a jump about 300 feet (100 meters) tall, before taking off into the air. They then can fly more than the length of a football field before touching down.

As physicist Amy Pope wrote in her article, three key physics concepts allow them to float through the air: gravity, lift and drag.

The regulations around the sport reinforce these ideas. Athletes must wear form-fitting suits to ensure they’re not getting even a little extra lift from any loose or flapping cloth. The skis athletes use must have a length proportional to their height and weight, as well.

“By turning their skis and bodies into what is essentially a wing, ski jumpers are able to fight gravity and stay airborne for five to seven seconds,” Pope wrote.

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Read more:
Ski jump: Flying or falling with style?

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2. The physics of sliding sports

Unlike the ski jumpers, athletes in Olympic sliding sports – luge, bobsled and skeleton – don’t get any air, but they reach a more blistering speed while ripping down the icy track, around 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour).

But just like ski jumping, gravity plays a part in sliding sports. As physicist John Eric Goff described in his article, it acts as the thrust sending them down the track. Sliders also wear skintight suits, which help them gain more speed by slicing through the air. Unlike the ski jumpers, they’re attempting to avoid drag and will lie as flat as possible on the sled. Bobsledders turn using steering controls, while luge and skeleton athletes turn using subtle body movements.

“All of these subtle movements are hard to see on television, but the consequences can be large – oversteering may lead to collisions with the track wall or even crashes,” wrote Goff. “Though it may appear that the riders simply slide down the icy track at great speeds after they get going, there is a lot more going on.”

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Read more:
The high-speed physics of how bobsled, luge and skeleton send humans hurtling faster than a car on the highway

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3. The mathematics of hockey

As hockey players slide across the ice, they’re contending with similar forces, such as friction and drag. However, there’s also another concept at play on the rink: luck.

Mark Robert Rank is a social scientist who wrote a book about luck. In his research, he found that compared to other popular team sports, luck plays a larger role in a hockey team’s likelihood to win a game.

“Anyone who has ever watched a professional hockey game can grasp the randomness that’s taking place on the ice. Skates or sticks often randomly deflect shots when players cross in the path of a puck’s trajectory. Pucks can take strange bounces as they travel across the rink. Goalies might just happen to be in the right place at the right time,” Rank wrote.

While Rank focused on National Hockey League games in his studies, Olympic athletes may see a similar effect as they take to the ice in Italy.

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Read more:
The luck of the puck in the Stanley Cup – why chance plays such a big role in hockey

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4. The engineering behind fake snow

While the Winter Olympics normally take place in countries that receive a sizable snowfall, the host city can’t always count on Mother Nature to create prime conditions for competition. It’s now commonplace for skiers and boarders to compete on artificially generated snow, and Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo will be no exception.

Engineering a phenomenon as intricate and delicate as snow isn’t easy, as atmospheric scientist Peter Veals explained in his article. Natural snowflakes are delicate, pronged crystals that fit together only loosely. Their structures create a light, airy texture.

Artifical snow is created by blowing pressurized water into cold air, where it quickly freezes into little icy droplets. These droplets don’t take on the same structure as natural snowflakes and end up packing together tightly.

An athlete’s preference might depend on their sport – dense artificial snow might serve a slalom skier carving tight turns more than a jumper who wants a fluffy cushion of powder to land on.

“Artificial snow often feels hard and icy. Fresh natural ‘powder’ snow, on the other hand, provides skiers and snowboarders an almost weightless feeling as they soar down the mountainside,” Veals explained.

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Read more:
Olympic skiers and snowboarders are competing on 100% fake snow – the science of how it’s made and how it affects performance

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5. Psychological biases

In many Winter Olympics sports, athletes take turns, competing in a set order. As psychologist Robin Kramer explained in his article, the first and last events in a sequence tend to stick out more in your brain. You might remember the first snowboarder to drop into the half pipe more clearly than the sixth, for example.

And you’re more likely to judge a performance based on how you judged the previous one in the sequence.

Even Olympic judges aren’t immune to these decision-making effects. Some sports have pushed for computer analysis for judging to reduce human biases. But usually it’s impossible to entirely remove the human elements of scoring.

“Realizing that athletes could win or lose Olympic medals based upon where in a sequence they compete is both surprising and worrying,” Kramer wrote. “With more research into these biases, we can figure out how to prevent them from influencing important outcomes like who goes home with the gold.”

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Read more:
Our psychological biases mean order matters when we judge items in sequence

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This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

– ref. From ski jumps and sliding bobsleds to engineering snow, here are 5 essential reads on the science of the Winter Olympics – https://theconversation.com/from-ski-jumps-and-sliding-bobsleds-to-engineering-snow-here-are-5-essential-reads-on-the-science-of-the-winter-olympics-274805

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Casey Fiesler, Associate Professor of Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder

A little over a year after TikTok temporarily went dark in the United States and users were greeted with a message explaining that “a law banning TikTok has been enacted,” those same U.S. users opened the app to find a pop-up message requiring them to agree to new terms before they could continue scrolling.

The new terms of service and privacy policy went into effect on Jan. 22, 2026, following the app’s sale from ByteDance to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a majority American-owned company that reportedly will control U.S. users’ data and content and the app’s recommendation algorithm.

People see this kind of pop-up all the time, and according to research, the “biggest lie on the internet” is that people ever read anything before clicking “agree.” But given many users’ unease about the ownership change – including fears of swapping Chinese surveillance for U.S. surveillance – it is unsurprising that this time, people paid attention. Screenshots of legal language spread quickly online, accompanied by warnings about sweeping new data collection.

I’m both a TikTok content creator and a tech ethics and policy researcher who has studied website terms and conditions, especially whether people read them (they don’t) and how well they understand them (they also don’t). When I saw the outrage on social media, I immediately dove down a terms of service and privacy policy rabbit hole that had me tumbling into the wayback machine and also looking at similar policies on other apps and TikTok’s policies in other countries.

In the end, I discovered that in the most widely shared examples, the language that sounded most alarming had either hardly changed at all or described practices that are fairly standard across social media.

Some changes aren’t really changes

Consider the list of “sensitive personal information” in TikTok’s new privacy policy, which includes items like sexual orientation and immigration status. Many users interpreted this list as evidence that TikTok had begun collecting more personal data. However, this exact same list appeared in the previous version of TikTok’s U.S. privacy policy, which was last updated in August 2024. And in both cases, the language focuses on “information you disclose” – for example, in your content or in responses to user surveys.

This language is in place presumably to comply with state privacy laws such as California’s Consumer Privacy Act, which includes requirements for disclosure of the collection of certain categories of information. TikTok’s new policy specifically cited the California law. Meta’s privacy policy lists very similar categories, and this language overall tends to signal regulatory compliance by disclosing existing data collection rather than additional surveillance.

Location tracking also prompted concerns. The new policy states that TikTok may “collect precise location data, depending on your settings.” This is a change, but it’s also common practice for the major social media apps.

The change also brings the company’s U.S. policy in line with TikTok policies in other countries. For example, the company’s European Economic Area privacy policy has very similar language, and users in the U.K. have to grant precise location access to use a “Nearby Feed” for finding events and businesses near them.

Though apps have other ways to approximate location, such as IP address, a user will have to grant permission through their phone’s location services in order for TikTok to access precise location via GPS – permission that TikTok has not yet requested from U.S. users. However, the new policy opens the door for users having the option to grant that permission in the future.

No news does not equal good news

None of this is to say that users are wrong to be cautious. Even if TikTok’s legal language around data privacy is standard for the industry, who controls your data and your feed is still very relevant. Uninstalls for the app spiked 130% in the days following the change, with many users expressing concern about the ties that the new owners have to President Donald Trump – notably Oracle, the company led by Trump supporter Larry Ellison.

It also didn’t help that TikTok’s first week under American ownership was a complete disaster. Severe technical problems – later attributed by TikTok to a data center power failure – happened to coincide with the new ownership announcement, fueling widespread concerns about censorship of content critical of the U.S. government. Perhaps some users remembered that Trump once joked about making the platform “100% MAGA.”

But regardless of what actually happened, at this point distrusting tech companies isn’t exactly irrational.

Clarity and trust

Conflating very real structural risks with unfamiliar sentences in legal documents, however, can obscure what is actually changing and what isn’t. The misleading information about TikTok’s policy changes that spread across social media is also evidence of a well-known design failure: Most tech policies aren’t made to be read.

My own work revealed that these documents are often written at a college or even graduate school reading level. Another analysis once calculated that if every American read the privacy policy for each website they visit for just a year, it would cost US$785 billion in lost leisure and productivity time.

So the discussion about TikTok’s policies is a case study in the deep mismatch between how tech companies communicate and how people interpret risk, particularly in an era of exceptionally low trust in both Big Tech and government. Right now, ambiguity doesn’t feel neutral. It feels threatening.

Instead of dismissing these reactions as overblown, I believe that companies should recognize that if a huge portion of their user base assumes the worst, that’s not a reading comprehension problem; it’s a trust problem. So writing data privacy policies more legibly is a start, but rebuilding any kind of inherent trust in the stewardship of that data is probably the more important challenge.

Casey Fiesler receives some direct payments from social media platforms for views on her content, including TikTok.

– ref. Fears about TikTok’s policy changes point to a deeper problem in the tech industry – https://theconversation.com/fears-about-tiktoks-policy-changes-point-to-a-deeper-problem-in-the-tech-industry-274721

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Josh Ederington, Professor of Economics, Miami University

National economies are increasingly moving in sync and responding to the same booms and busts as a result of near-instantaneous communications and interdependent global supply chains. This is a sharp change from much of the 21st century, when economies were primarily affected by economic shocks in neighboring countries.

That’s what we found in a paper published in the journal Economic Letters, in which we calculated measures of economic correlation using data on gross domestic product for 70 countries over the past 60 years. Along with fellow economic scholars Yoonseon Han and David Lindequist, we found that physical distance was indeed less important than it used to be, particularly with regard to how interconnected countries are to one another.

Specifically, we measured the extent to which countries have found their business cycles — the traditional boom-bust intervals of economic performance — in sync. For example, when there is a positive shock to production in Germany, to what extent does this affect incomes in the United States?

We were interested in whether the relationship between distance and economic correlation has changed over time.

What we found was that from 1960-1999, business cycles were strongly localized. That is, a country’s economy was much more likely to be impacted by shocks to nearby countries than by shocks in faraway countries. For example, the U.S. was more affected by economic conditions in Canada or Mexico than it was to economic conditions in the United Kingdom or South Korea.

This finding is not surprising and fits well with a long economic literature showing that countries are more likely to trade with nearby countries and that the volume of trade between two countries is a significant predictor of how synchronized their business cycles are.

However, we went on to find that this relationship between physical distance and economic correlation started to break down after 2000. Specifically, for the past 20 years, there has been no statistically significant relationship between the geographic distance between two countries and the extent to which incomes in the two countries move together — what economists refer to as their economic covariance.

Why it matters

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a number of economists, including Frances Cairncross and Thomas Friedman, popularized the idea that new technologies like the internet and containerization had led to the death of distance, in which our new lives would be increasingly globalized. They imagined a future in which these new technologies not only impacted how goods were produced — like global supply chains — but also how we work and live.

Such theories were met with some skepticism by trade researchers at the time, and not all of the predictions have come true. For example, the link between distance and trade flows has proved stubbornly persistent. Even today, the top-two trading partners of the U.S. remain Canada and Mexico. And one only has to look at housing prices in major urban centers in the U.S. to see that physical location remains highly valued to most people.

However, our research suggests that at least some of the popular predictions about the globalized economy might be coming true. For instance, the world economy appears to have made countries increasingly susceptible to global, as opposed to localized, shocks.

This was made devastatingly clear to millions of people during the pandemic, when supply chain bottlenecks reverberated across the globe, subsequently generating a worldwide rise in prices. As a result, U.S. economic and trade policy discussions have been increasingly focused on potential vulnerabilities to foreign shocks. Indeed, a new buzzword during the Biden administration was “supply chain resiliance.”

What still isn’t known

Our work provides evidence that business cycles and economic shocks have become more globalized over the past couple of decades. Many of the main economic events from 1960-2000 – like the 1980s savings and loan crisis or the 1997 Asian currency crisis – had primarily localized effects. But more recently, the principal economic events of the past two decades — like the 2008 financial crisis — have had far more global implications.

What we don’t know is whether this pattern will continue, resulting in a new era in which most of the world’s economies move in tandem. Or will a new turn toward economic nationalism lead to a reversal in which economies – and economic shocks – become more localized once again?

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Has globalization lessened the importance of physical distance? For economic shocks, new research suggests ‘yes’ – https://theconversation.com/has-globalization-lessened-the-importance-of-physical-distance-for-economic-shocks-new-research-suggests-yes-272213

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Jack Buffington, Associate Professor of Practice in Supply Chain Management, University of Denver

Grocery prices have risen by 25% in Colorado over the past five years, more than wages have grown over that same period.

One of the top issues facing Americans is the cost of living relative to housing, health care and food, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey from December 2025.

Food prices are a more acute problem in Colorado than in many U.S. states due to a highly concentrated retail and supply chain system. King Soopers, which is part of Kroger, and Walmart control nearly half of the total market share. Safeway/Albertsons is losing market share and closing stores, Costco and Sam’s Club are limited, members-only warehouses, and the remaining stores are niche providers and small independents.

Other than raising concerns about food prices with politicians, consumers can’t do much to address this kitchen table topic.

But food shoppers in Colorado are about to get a new option. Grocery store giant Aldi announced that 50 stores and a distribution center will be built in the state over the next five years.

Opportunity for market disruption

It’s true that Aldi’s 50 stores will barely make a dent in a state with well over 1,000 places to buy groceries. But when entering a market, Aldi doesn’t try to compete head-to-head against the giants. Nationwide, it controls just 3% of market share versus Walmart’s 21% and Kroger’s 9%. Instead, Aldi enters a market as a lowest-cost retailer, something that is desperately needed in Colorado.

I spent 20 years in the food industry and research the supply chain.

From my experience, I’ve seen retailers consolidate their market share by lowering prices – only to raise those prices again once the competition has gone out of business. Quite possibly, Aldi’s supply chain strategy is the greatest opportunity to disrupt the stagnation in Colorado’s food market and create positive change for consumers.

Competition in Colorado

Making Colorado’s grocery market more competitive isn’t as simple as adding new stores. There’s a chicken-and-egg, no pun intended, conundrum between retailers and the food supply chain, leading to a lack of healthy market competition.

Colorado isn’t a particularly attractive market for food supply chains because it lies in the sparsely populated and remote Mountain West region, and other than beef, it isn’t a significant food producer. The state is largely a food importer. Its vegetables come from California, Arizona and Mexico, processed meats from Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, and packaged foods from the Midwest.

Colorado has a stable retail market through the two largest grocery chains in the U.S. – Kroger and Walmart – but the state does not offer an attractive opportunity for new entrants or even those existing players. Walmart, for example, has a lower market share of 11% in Colorado than its average U.S. share of 21%. These two companies have little incentive to compete by bringing costs down for Colorado’s consumers.

The grocer market was weakened in 2024 in Colorado and other parts of the U.S. due to a failed merger attempt between Kroger and Safeway/Albertsons. The merger, blocked by a federal court, left these companies in a no-man’s-land in the American food system: not large or efficient enough to compete against Walmart, and not nimble and focused enough to compete against the new upstarts, such as Trader Joe’s and Aldi.

Aldi to upset the market

Nontraditional supermarkets, such as Walmart and Aldi, pose an existential threat to the traditional American supermarket. Nontraditional supermarkets hold 63% of U.S. market share versus 37% for traditional.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the traditional American supermarket, such as King Soopers, to compete with nontraditional stores that operate on razor-thin margins, pay higher wages and operate massive stores that offer a huge selection of offerings, such as 100 kinds of salad dressing.

In the face of the new realities of higher food costs, I believe that only Walmart can survive in this supercenter model. The alternative is a trend toward smaller, more nimble stores with lower costs and a smaller number of products.

Aldi’s arrival in Colorado may be the necessary catalyst for disruption. It has the lowest costs – and the lowest profit margins – of any grocery retailer in the U.S. Aldi mainly operates relatively small stores, which means it has lower overhead and sells fewer products than many of its competitors. The key to its low-cost strategy is that nearly all of its product lines are private label. They are produced by a manufacturer and sold under Aldi’s brand name, lowering marketing costs.

Aldi announced plans to build a distribution center in Aurora, Colorado, by 2029. The new center will join ones owned by Walmart and Kroger, creating a more robust, local food supply chain infrastructure that is necessary for lower food prices.

Supply chain innovation coming to Colorado

Americans spend 10% of their income on food, one of the lowest rates worldwide, but many feel like they are becoming less able to afford the groceries they need.

In Colorado, food insecurity affects 1 in 8 people. Rural areas of the state and pockets within cities have become food deserts where the largest supermarkets choose not to enter.

Aldi’s smaller stores, private label products and Colorado-based supply chain system could have a ripple effect on retailers in low-income areas where Dollar Tree and regional independents currently dominate. A stronger emphasis on nimble and efficient food supply chains in places with many supermarkets will inevitably spill into underserved communities with very few or none at all. It’s even possible that this could improve food affordability and accessibility across the state.

Jack Buffington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Aldi is coming to Colorado, and the disruption could lead to lower food prices – https://theconversation.com/aldi-is-coming-to-colorado-and-the-disruption-could-lead-to-lower-food-prices-274186

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Frédéric Dimanche, Professor and former Director (2015-2025), Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Toronto Metropolitan University

With an upcoming FIFA World Cup being staged across the nation, 2026 was supposed to be a bumper year for tourism to the United States, driven in part by hordes of arriving soccer fans.

And yet, the U.S. tourism industry is worried. While the rest of the world saw a travel bump in 2025, with global international arrivals up 4%, the U.S. saw a downturn. The number of foreign tourists who came to the United States fell by 5.4% during the year – a sharper decline than the one experienced in 2017-18, the last time, outside the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the industry was gripped by fears of a travel slump.

Policy stances from the Trump administration on everything from immigration to tariffs, along with currency swings and stricter border controls, have seemingly proved a turnoff to travelers from other countries, especially Canadians – the single largest source of foreign tourists for the United States. Canadian travel to the U.S. fell by close to 30% in 2025. But it is not just visitors from Canada who are choosing to avoid the United States. Travel from Australia, India and Western Europe, among others, has also shrunk.

We are experts in tourism. And while we don’t possess a crystal ball, we believe that the tourism decline of 2025 could well continue through 2026. The evidence appears clear: Washington’s ongoing policies are putting off would-be travelers. In other words, the tourism industry is in the midst of a “Trump slump.”

Fewer Canadians heading south

The impact of Donald Trump’s policies are perhaps most pronounced when looking north of the U.S. border. According to the U.S. Travel Association, Canadian visitors generated approximately 20.4 million visits and roughly US$20.5 billion in visitor spending in 2024, supporting about 140,000 American jobs.

The economic impact of fewer Canadian visitors in 2025 affects mostly border states that depend heavily on people driving across the border for retail, restaurants, casinos and short-stay hotels.

The sharp drop in return trips by car to Canada is a direct indication that border economies might be facing stress. This has led elected officials and tourism professionals to woo Canadians in recent months, sometimes with “Canadian-only deals.”

And it isn’t just border states. In Las Vegas, some hotels are now offering currency rate parity between Canadian and U.S. dollars for rooms and gambling vouchers in a bid to attract customers.

Winter-sun states, such as Florida, Arizona and California, are facing both fewer short-stay arrivals and an emerging drop-off in Canadian “snowbirds.” Reports indicate a noticeable increase in Canadians listing U.S. properties in Florida and Arizona for sale and canceling seasonal plans, threatening lodging, health care spending and property tax revenue.

Economic and safety concerns

Economic policies pursued by the Trump administration appear to be among the main reasons visitors are staying away from the U.S. Multiple tariff announcements – pushing tariffs to the highest levels since 1935 – along with tougher border-related rhetoric and an aggressive foreign policy have contributed to a negative perception of the U.S. among would-be tourists.

Many foreigners report feeling unwelcome or uncertain about travel to the U.S., and some public leaders from Canada and Europe have urged citizens to spend domestically, instead. This significantly reduced intent to travel to the U.S. in 2025.

Meanwhile, exchange rates and inflation have further affected some aspiring travelers, especially Canadians. The Canadian dollar was weakened in 2025, making U.S. trips more expensive. This disproportionately affected day-trip and shopping-driven border crossings.

Travelers are also staying away from the U.S. because of safety concerns. Several countries have posted travel advisories about the risks of traveling to the U.S., with Germany being the latest. Although most worries are related to increased border controls, recent aggressive tactics by immigration agents have added to potential visitors’ decisions to avoid the U.S.

A wake-up call for the US

The current tourism outlook is reason for concern. Julia Simpson, president and CEO of the industry association World Travel and Tourism Council, has described the situation as a “wake-up call” for the U.S. government.

“The world’s biggest travel and tourism economy is heading in the wrong direction,” she said in May 2025. “While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign.”

According to estimates, the U.S. stood to lose about $30 billion in international tourism in 2025 as travelers chose to travel elsewhere.

The disappointing figures for U.S. tourism follow a longer trend. The share of global international travel heading to the U.S. fell from 8.4% in 1996 to 4.9% in 2024 and was expected to drop to 4.8% in 2025. Meanwhile, arrivals to other top tourism destinations, including France, Greece, Mexico and Italy, are set to increase.

The decline is also being felt by the business tourism sector, with every major global region sending fewer people to the U.S. for work.

A World Cup bump?

So what does that mean for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, with 75% of the soccer matches being hosted across the United States? Traditionally, host nations benefit from sports events, although impacts are often overestimated. After a disappointing year, the U.S. tourism sector expects the World Cup to boost visits and revenue.

But Trump’s foreign policy may undermine those expectations.

A new visa integrity fee of $250 and plans for social media screening of some visitors make travel to the U.S. less attractive. And there are growing calls for a boycott of the U.S. following some of Trump’s policies, including his aggressive stance about Greenland.

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter has suggested that fans avoid going to the U.S. for the World Cup.

It remains to be seen whether fans will follow his call. Bookings for flights and hotels were up after the dates and venues of games were announced in December.

But current political rhetoric is affecting travel decisions, especially given that fans from some specific countries may not be able to get visas. The U.S. government has imposed travel bans on Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran and Haiti, all of which have qualified for the World Cup.

European soccer leaders have even discussed the possibility of a boycott, although such an action is unlikely to happen, given the revenue at stake for national teams and football associations.

Will the ‘Trump slump’ continue?

White House policies look unlikely to drastically change in the next few months. And this causes concern for tourism professionals, although most have remained silent about the recent immigration crackdown.

To make matters worse, federal funding for Brand USA, the national destination marketing organization, was cut deeply in mid-2025, leading to staff shortages that have reduced the country’s capacity to counter negative sentiment through positive promotion.

Soccer fans tend to be passionate about following their national side. And this could offset some of the impact of the Trump travel slump.

Yet, with sky-high match ticket prices and the international reputation of the U.S. as a tourism destination damaged, we believe it is unlikely that the tourism industry will recover in 2026. It will take a long time and good strategies to repair the serious damage done to the nation’s image among travelers in the rest of the world.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Will a ‘Trump slump’ continue to hit US tourism in 2026 − and even keep World Cup fans away? – https://theconversation.com/will-a-trump-slump-continue-to-hit-us-tourism-in-2026-and-even-keep-world-cup-fans-away-274244

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Emily Messina, Associate Professor of Rehabilitation and Recreational Therapy, Florida International University

What do collecting old editions of Dungeons & Dragons monster manuals, securing the same tailgate spot for over 20 years and mastering yoga postures have in common? They are all forms of “serious leisure.”

These pursuits are different from casual hobbies in several ways. They require participation over longer periods, which makes people who practice them more skilled and more connected with the activity over time. The driving force for casual leisure is having fun; when a participant becomes more focused on accomplishment and improving their skills, the pursuit can gradually become more serious.

I direct the Rehabilitation and Recreational Therapy Program at Florida International University. In my research, I study leisure pursuits and various contexts for serious leisure, with a focus on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

I also work in recreational therapy, which helps people recover and return to their pursuits after injury or illness. The approach we use can work as well for someone starting out with a new hobby.

The idea of serious leisure was coined in 1982 by sociologist Robert Stebbins, who described the unique characteristics of more structured leisure pursuits. The more we understand about why people do the things they do, the more they can benefit from their pursuits. Even fringe or supposedly nerdy activities like D&D offer insight into the connections people form when they delve into a nonwork activity.

Why so serious?

People often associate leisure with ease and freedom. In contrast, serious leisure involves pursuing something for a long time and gradually developing the skills and knowledge required to excel at it. People have to push through barriers or setbacks to stay engaged and make progress.

Over time, participants come to identify with the activity and to feel included in a subculture that has its own norms and values. In my work, that sometimes means developing elaborate characters who can battle beasts, dragons and giants.

Dungeons & Dragons, which was developed in 1974, is a long-form game that takes place in multiple sessions that can last weeks, months or years. A Dungeon Master moderates the game and assumes the role of all monsters and non-player characters.

The Dungeon Master narrates an adventure, aided by a Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. Players create characters that possess certain traits and qualities. The outcomes of battles, decisions and interactions are determined by dice rolls.

My study included convening focus groups with regular D&D players to determine whether their experiences playing the game represented serious leisure, as opposed to casual leisure associated with traditional board games.

Players described developing their characters for years and acquiring knowledge and skills. They learned how magical items and weapons worked, made calculations and researched their character sheets. All of these practices are attributes of a uniquely D&D subculture.

Participants also described the benefits they received from playing the game. For many of them, D&D offered a sense of community. It also was a safe space and a welcoming activity for those who might feel excluded by traditional leisure pursuits, such as sports and competitive games.

From yoga to tailgating

Prior studies have identified many other activities that can qualify as serious leisure, depending on the level of engagement. Some are in-person physical activities like yoga, sport clubs and rock climbing. Others include online pursuits like multiplayer online games and a virtual Harry Potter running club where members share running stories and experiences keyed to Harry Potter-themed discussion topics, such as logging miles in virtual races for their specific Hogwarts houses. Studies have explored game-based pursuits like tournament bridge, and even the social art of tailgating among serious football fans.

In each case, researchers found that participants experienced hallmarks of serious leisure. For example, participants in multiplayer online games describe prolonged immersion in the activity. Yoga students pursued systematic training and skill development. And maniacally devoted Florida Gators fans scheduled family events around football season.

In all cases, participants became increasingly involved over time, acquired knowledge and skills, and often forged shared identities and social connections.

Are you serious?

How do you know if your favorite leisure pursuit has gotten serious? One indication could be spending a lot of time on it and expanding your related knowledge or skills. You may also personally identify with the activity and its associated norms or subculture. Perhaps you’re increasingly spending time with other participants, and even using shared lingo.

Ideally, your serious leisure pursuit will give you pride and a sense of accomplishment. Belonging to a shared subculture can make it easier to express yourself, which promotes social interaction and a feeling of belonging.

These benefits aren’t trivial. Studies show that Americans’ social networks are getting smaller and that people are spending more time alone. These trends are associated with increased risks for premature death, heart disease and stroke, anxiety and depression, and dementia. In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on the loneliness epidemic that called for a national strategy to advance social connection.

Leisure pursuits are a way to develop shared interests and social contacts. For example, dedicated bridge players describe a social world unique to champion-level players that involves hierarchies and relationships spanning decades. Serious participants in multiplayer online games describe feeling like part of a team and working together to share materials, skills and knowledge to help win challenges and battles. And serious football fans describe rites of passage associated with fandom, such as a solo performance of the team fight song on the tailgate of a truck.

How to start

Serious leisure doesn’t happen instantly, and not every practice needs to reach this level of commitment. Casual leisure has benefits too, so there is value in just getting started. But when a beginner gets obsessed with a new pursuit, it may start to take on the qualities of serious leisure over time.

Starting a new hobby can be nerve-racking, especially when it takes place outside of our familiar home environments. Start small, go easy and match the level of challenge with your skill. You just may find yourself getting serious about it.

Emily Messina works for Florida International University.

– ref. Whether it’s yoga, rock climbing or Dungeons & Dragons, taking leisure to a high level can be good for your well-being – https://theconversation.com/whether-its-yoga-rock-climbing-or-dungeons-and-dragons-taking-leisure-to-a-high-level-can-be-good-for-your-well-being-268842