Doug,
Glad to hear the Nation wants you to do such a regular feature.
As a housing planner for Berkeley dealing with homeless policy,
services and programs, I have some indicators kinda close to my
heart for you to consider.
How about the number of estimated homeless population per 1,000
resident population? Another indicator could perhaps include the
percent of households in America paying >50 percent of their
income in rent, then the percent of households at or below 50
percent of their regional median incomes who pay >50 percent of
their incomes in rent. It would be interesting to gauge how the
poor fair relative to the middle class in that regard, and over
time.
I don't know if the nation's (small n) data sources on the
experience of welfare reform is up to the task, but some gauge of
how many people left the rolls after August 1996, by the reason
for their exit (e.g., having gotten a job versus being cut
because of non-compliance with their "work plans").
I would also suggest some health related indicators, including
perhaps AIDS cumulative & TB case rates, with resistant-strain
TB, as well as price indicators on the costs of various classes
of drugs, such as protease inhibitors and antibiotics.
Finally, a number of cities and communities around the country
have passed or are considering living wage ordinances of various
kinds and stripes. Some sort of regional-oriented living wage
indicators would be interesting and useful, as an alternative to
the CPI.
To the extent you can get the Nation, with its New Look, to
incorporate good graphics, it seems you're the guy to do it.
