Author: openjargon

• Baltimore gave low-income parents $1,000 a month for two years, no-strings-attached.
• Participants reported higher housing security and incomes after the first year.
• Over 100 basic income pilots have been tried in the US, but some lawmakers are fighting them.

For some Baltimore families, basic income helped pay the bills: rent, groceries, healthcare, childcare, and car payments. For others, it provided the support they needed to maintain stable jobs.

The Baltimore Young Families Success Fund, with research by research firm Abt Global, released its interim results in June for a guaranteed basic income pilot which began in August 2022 and is set to end this month. It gave 130 parents between the ages of 18 and 24 $1,000 cash each month to spend as they choose, with no strings attached.

After one year of receiving payments, participants were more likely to have housing, higher household income, and a degree than the pilot's control group. Still, some participants' overall financial well-being was not impacted in a statistically significant way.

Researchers primarily focused on participants' income, housing, employment, and education outcomes in the first year of the pilot. Through surveys and interviews, participants were compared to a randomly selected control group of 156 parents who met the criteria for the pilot but were not given basic income.

Like most other GBI pilot research, Baltimore's results are based on participants' self-reported experiences at the six-month and one-year points of the pilot. The pilot will continue to survey participants through February 2025.

Baltimore's basic income program joins over 100 similar pilots launched across the US — including some specifically focused on parents or families with young children. These pilots typically offer low-income Americans monthly payments for a set time period to spend on necessities. Economic security experts and local leaders continue to try the no-strings–attached cash model to combat poverty and income inequality despite continued conservative political opposition and legal challenges.

"We know that so many of Baltimore's young families simply need the opportunity to thrive, but often don't have the resources to help them make it happen," Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, who was a key player in launching the GBI pilot, said in a press statement.

However, not all policymakers agree that GBI is a sustainable approach to poverty reduction, and it is not yet clear how basic income will impact participants' long-term financial security.

Baltimore focused on young parents experiencing financial insecurity

Baltimore leaders focused on young parents because early adulthood is a key window for building financial stability, which can be difficult for individuals with young children, per the report.

Parents eligible for the pilot had incomes at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, which is $74,580 for a family of three, but most participants' incomes were below that. They also had to be full or partial caretakers for at least one child.

The pilot is a collaboration between the city, local foundations, community leaders, and the nonprofit Mayors for a Guaranteed Income — with funding coming from philanthropic donations and $4.8 million via the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

The Baltimore Young Families Success Fund randomly assigned eligible applicants to the participant group or a control group.

Of the 153 selected pilot participants, 23 did not receive cash payments either because they declined them, could not be contacted, or did not fully meet the criteria. Additionally, most of the city's GBI participants were experiencing food or housing insecurity before receiving payments.

In fall 2023, BI talked to a Baltimore participant who said the pilot allowed her and her fiancé to move into a house. Tazhane Jordan had been living in her car with her toddler daughter and another baby on the way. She said the cash payments helped her family secure housing along with everyday expenses.

"People can always use resources for specific things, but sometimes, you know, you just need a little money for random things: gasoline, toilet paper, baby formula, things like that," Jordan said.

Baltimore participants reported higher housing security and household incomes

At the time of application, slightly more participants were in independent living situations than the control group — 52% compared to 45% — though this difference grew 13 percentage points after the first year. The "independent living situation" criteria mean participants weren't relying on friends or family for housing.

No participants were homeless after 12 months, compared to 5% of control group members. Researchers suggest basic income was likely responsible for the increased percentage of participants renting an apartment.

After a year of GBI, participants had a higher average household income of $23,608 a year, compared to $16,233 a year for the control group. Data shows participants either maintained their employment or saw a slight increase in labor force participation. More participants also reported applying to a trade school or college, and researchers noted that participants may have invested their cash payments in education instead of supplementing their income.

The researchers acknowledge participants remained "economically vulnerable" throughout the pilot, as their average household income remained below the federal poverty level and their unemployment rate was higher than similar Baltimore residents.

GBI pilots are facing political opposition, legal challenges

Basic income programs continue to face opposition in local and state legislatures. States like Iowa and Arizona have introduced GBI bans, as some Republican lawmakers call the programs "socialist," or worry cash payments could make low-income families too dependent on government assistance.

Several lawsuits have also been filed challenging the use of public money for basic income, alleging that it is "unconstitutional" in some states for cities to give residents direct cash. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton halted a Houston-area GBI pilot in April, and a public money-related lawsuit filed by two St. Louis residents in June could cut funding for the city's program.

But some, like Scott, see the initial results from his city's pilot as promising. He said Baltimore parents are using the money to stabilize their families and build their careers.

"This program invests in their potential and allows them to pursue the needs and goals that they determined for their own families," Scott said. "All the evidence points to that being a game changer for them."

Have you benefited from a guaranteed basic income program? Are you open to sharing how you spent the money? If so, reach out to these reporters at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com and nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• A Massachusetts-based single mom of two is working three jobs but struggling to pay the bills. 
• She made $55,000 last year and said she's ineligible for many government-assistance programs. 
• She's among the ALICEs — Americans who are above the poverty line but struggling financially. 

Sarah is struggling.

The single mom of two, who's based in Massachusetts, made about $55,000 last year across one full-time and two part-time jobs, according to documents viewed by Business Insider. But she said it wasn't nearly enough.

"Every month is a struggle to make sure all the bills are paid — there's never enough for savings," she previously told BI via email, referring to her car loan, car insurance, rent, and food. "It is frustrating and exhausting, mentally and physically." (Sarah asked to use a pseudonym to prevent identification by a prior partner she said was abusive.)

Sarah knows of several government benefits programs that might be able to help her, but there's a problem: She said she doesn't qualify for many of them, in large part because her income is too high.

In the past, Sarah said she's qualified for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and MassHealth — the last of which provides free or low-cost healthcare to Massachusetts residents in need. But with her earnings, she's above the maximum pre-tax annual income threshold of $34,341 to qualify for MassHealth.

She still qualifies for a rental voucher housing assistance program that subsidizes a portion of her rent, but she said she still spends roughly 40% of her monthly income on housing. What's more, she said she's "dangerously close" to losing this rental assistance because her income is too high — the eligibility criteria vary by city in Massachusetts.

"The poverty limit is light years away from reality," Sarah said. The federal poverty level is $31,200 for a family of four or $15,060 for an individual.

Sarah is stuck in no-man's-land, and she's not alone. In 2021, about 13% of the US population was in poverty, according to data from the nonprofit organization United Way. But an additional 29% qualified for what United Ways calls an ALICE — asset limited, income constrained, employed.

ALICEs are Americans who are struggling to pay the bills but may make too much money to qualify for government benefits like SNAP, rental assistance, or Medicaid. Without government benefits to supplement their incomes, the rising costs of living expenses like food and housing over the past few years have proven particularly challenging for some ALICEs.

To be sure, the share of Americans in poverty is near the lowest level in decades, according to the most recent Census Bureau data, which reflected the poverty rate as of 2022. The unemployment rate remains low, inflation-adjusted wages are rising, and Americans across income levels have seen their wealth grow considerably in recent years.

But not all Americans are thriving — even among those who've managed to stay above the poverty line.

"There's never enough for savings"

Sarah said she's done whatever she can to earn an income for her family, including working one overnight shift a week last year. But after paying the bills, there's rarely much money left over.

"There's never enough for savings, let alone emergencies or even taking the kids out to a proper restaurant," she said.

She's applied for several affordable housing programs, but she said most of them have waitlists that are five to 10 years long. Though the housing assistance she still receives is helpful, she said she still doesn't have enough money to afford a bed.

"I have been sleeping on a couch and surviving off of a food pantry and creative means — like utilizing friends with various store discounts and almost exclusively wearing used clothing," she said.

She wishes more was being done to help people like herself.

"The housing crisis must be attended to immediately," she said. "Food stamp guidelines and other social safety net programs need an overhaul because the current system is flawed and outdated."

Are you an ALICE or working while still struggling to afford daily life? Contact this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.

• Gymnasts have elite core strength.
• Try the hollow hold exercise and variations to build core muscle and strength without a gym.
• Stay consistent and make steady progress instead of taking on too much at once. 

Take your core workouts to the next level with simple techniques recommended by elite gymnasts.

Having a strong core is essential to success in gymnastics, according to KJ Johnson, a student-athlete at Louisiana State University who helped her team win the 2024 NCAA women's national championship title.

"When you first start gymnastics, the core is the main thing. They always tell us to keep our core tight," she said.

Training your core the right way and engaging your abs correctly can help you build muscle and strength more effectively, even if you're not an Olympian or D1 champ.

The hollow hold exercise builds a stronger core without a gym

Working out as a D1 athlete involves an intensive schedule, Johnson told Business Insider in an interview coordinated by creator subscription platform Fanfix, where Johnson shares details of her life and workouts.

"It's on the go 24/7," Johnson said.

In addition to training gymnastics skills, Johnson said she's also passionate about lifting weights to boost her performance and make her more durable for tough training sessions and competitions.

But one of her favorite core exercises is a movement you can do at home in just a few minutes without any equipment

The hollow hold exercise is a simple bodyweight movement that involves lying on your back and pressing your lower back into the floor to fire up your core muscles while holding your legs above the ground and extending your arms overhead.

Try it, and you'll likely feel the burn in your abs within 30 seconds.

Once you've mastered the basic move, you can add in more challenging variations of the exercise like:

• Hollow rocks: while holding the hollow body position, gently rock back and forth, keeping your core tight
• V-ups: extend your feet up over your hips as you reach your hands up to toward your toes in a "V" shape
• Scissor kicks: from a hollow hold with legs extended, bring your legs together and cross one leg over the other. Return to the start position and repeat with the other leg on top.

Johnson routinely incorporates these hollow hold moves into her workouts.

"Whether it's upper body or lower body or just a cardio day, I will always do core at the end," Johnson said.

Focus on consistency

Team USA gymnast Fred Richard's training sessions can take seven hours of the day.

In addition to drilling techniques, Richard spends an extra hour a day of training so he can perform his best, he told Business Insider in an interview about his partnership with the energy drink brand Celsius, which fuels his workouts.

Richard said the extra time is mostly taken up by yoga, which keeps him flexible and prevents injury, along with physical therapy.

But no single exercise has been key to his success; he swears by a training technique of planning ahead to achieve his goals, Richard told Business Insider in an interview about his partnership with the energy drink brand Celsius.

"I think the biggest thing I've learned in my sport is whatever you want to do, the first step is creating a system for it," Richard said.

A common fitness mistake is going all-in on a goal for a short period of time, which can backfire if you're not able to keep up with the effort long-term.

Instead, Richard said it pays to build small habits and think about making progress in terms of months instead of days.

"It's not, Hey, I want to get stronger. Let me work really hard today on strength. That's not going to solve your problem. When I think I want to get stronger and more flexible, I say, okay, in the next six months, what's something I can do every single day?" Richard said.

• People around the world are choosing to vote against the establishment.
• And this anti-incumbent trend is bad news for Biden. 
• Economic issues like inflation and rising income inequality are fueling voter dissatisfaction.

It's a bad time to be an incumbent.

From the UK to India, France to the US, voters are taking to the polls and making their voices clear through sweeping and shocking swings of political power.

Though some say right-wing movements are on the rise globally, in this year's elections, that's not universally the case. Some left-leaning parties are beating out those on the right, and vice versa.

With the cost of living and inflation rising and less social mobility following the COVID-19 pandemic, voters are taking out their anger on their country's leaders.

"I think inflation is probably the elephant in the room here," Brian Greenhill, a professor at SUNY Albany and political scientist who studies international institutions and globalization, told Business Insider.

In short, voters are just fed up — no matter who's in charge.

"I do think there are other longer-term structural issues too that are perhaps fueling this kind of anti-incumbent, but also more generally anti-establishment, trend," Greenhill said.

Voters want a chance

Globally, it's not hard to see an anti-establishment, anti-incumbency trend playing out.

• In the UK's election on Thursday, polling shows that the liberal Labour opposition party, led by Keir Starmer, is poised to unseat the 14-year rule of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party, according to Reuters.
• In France, support for President Emmanuel Macron's centrist government collapsed as far-left and far-right parties gained a higher percentage of votes this week in the first round of the country's two-round election process.
• In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's long-dominant party failed to win an outright parliamentary majority in last month's election, while the more democratically-minded opposition party gained steam.
• In South Africa's election last month, the African National Congress party lost its outright majority for the first time in 30 years, NPR reported.
• And in South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol's ruling conservative party suffered losses to the liberal opposition in April's parliamentary election, Reuters reported.

The list of global incumbent losses goes on — and that's not even mentioning the United States, where incumbent President Joe Biden is trailing behind Donald Trump in national polling ahead of the November election.

"There's a lot of dissatisfaction with the way democracy is working," Richard Wike, director of Pew's Global Attitudes Research, said on FiveThirtyEight's Politics podcast in June.

Just 36% of people in 12 countries — the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, South Korea, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden — are satisfied with the way their country's democracy is working, according to a spring 2024 poll from Pew Research Center. And that's down from 49% in 2021, the research shows.

"This dissatisfaction is a bit of a global trend in many countries," Wike added on FiveThirtyEight's podcast.

One of the biggest issues driving the surge in anti-establishment populist movements, Greenhill said, is rising income equality, which, though largely stemming from the 2008 financial crisis, was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another factor, Greenhill added, is the worsening political polarization driven by social media echo chambers and dubious online news consumption.

In the US, incumbents have historically fared better than their opponents.

Between 1936 and 2012, 11 out of 14 presidents won their re-election races, but the tide appears to be shifting, TIME reported.

Greenhill pointed out that anti-incumbency frustrations tend to come and go, but that the growing populist, anti-establishment movement we're seeing now is, "at least in modern political history, somewhat new."

"The fact that Trump right now — after everything that's happened after January 6th and his felony convictions and his multiple criminal indictments — the fact that he's still leading in the polls shows that there's still a huge kind of reservoir of support for this kind of 'burn the house down' kind of approach to politics," Greenhill said.

And if the goal is burning down the house, Americans may be ready to light the match. So-called "double haters" — voters who dislike both Trump and Biden — have made up an influential chunk of the electorate in recent polls.

The dissatisfaction with Biden after his disastrous debate performance last week, is so strong globally and even among his own supporters, that it's reportedly led Biden himself to question if he can turn it all around.

If Biden does decide to step aside, it would present a unique situation: Who would voters choose when no direct incumbent is running in an anti-incumbent environment?

America may end up being the testing ground for that experiment.

• Boeing's 777X, its largest passenger plane, is five years behind schedule.
• With 481 orders from airlines like Emirates and Singapore, much is riding on the new widebody's success.
• The jet may face more delays amid heightened scrutiny of Boeing's commercial airplane production.

Boeing's 777X is the world's largest passenger plane in production, complete with revolutionary folding wingtips and 10% better fuel efficiency than competitors.

More than a dozen airlines, including British Airways, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines, have placed 481 orders for the twin-engine aircraft that was supposed to start flying passengers by 2020.

But the new jet, already five years behind schedule, has Boeing $1.5 billion in the hole. With the planemaker mired with other 737 and 787-related fires, adding an entirely new plane to the mix has become even harder.

Boeing now expects the 777X, which will come in the larger 777-9 and smaller 777-8 variants, to be certified in 2025. And at least one waiting airline boss thinks it may be even later.

A Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider it is working closely with regulators in the 777X's certification, noting the jet has completed thousands of test flights to date.

"Our team remains focused on executing this comprehensive series of tests and conditions on the ground and in the air to demonstrate the safety, reliability and performance of the airplane," they said, reaffirming the 2025 target.

Delays could stretch even longer as Boeing searches for a new CEO and clears a backlog of almost 6,200 unfilled orders, experts said. The FAA slowed deliveries after the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout in January and capped Boeing's 737 production.

"With new management at Boeing, I'll feel a lot better at certification prospects for this jet," aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told BI. "In fact, until new management arrives, there's really nothing the company says that should be taken seriously."

A lot is riding on the new 777X, including proving its modified design was the right strategy over building a new plane from scratch. Boeing will also need to earn back the trust of airlines that have raised concerns about the planemaker's ability to certify and deliver planes, experts said.

Boeing also doesn't want to fall further behind rival Airbus. The European planemaker's A321neo family has outsold the 737 since 2019, and it's already launched the 777X's competing Airbus A350 widebody, which has some 1,300 orders to date from the likes of Korean Air, Delta Air Lines, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa.

The 777X's familiarity and more spacious 10-abreast cabin are huge selling points against the A350, which is smaller than the 777-9 model but cheaper and longer-ranged.

Boeing needs to prove it can safely update an old aircraft

Unlike Airbus' A350, Boeing based the 777X on its classic 777-300ER but modified it to be larger and more efficient. The 777-300ER is Boeing's best-selling 777 variant, selling over 800 units since 2000.

Key differences between the two 777 types are the size, engines, and wings. The new plane has tips that fold up to ensure it fits in the same gate space as the classic model.

Operationally, the 777X is similar to its predecessor — and that's by design. Its flight deck resembles that of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner — meaning pilots can jump between all aircraft with little extra training, and airports save on infrastructure costs.

Boeing's last completely new widebody plane was the 787 way back in 2003. While the Dreamliner is a cash cow with over 2,300 orders and about 1,100 delivered, the planemaker wasn't ready to invest in another challenging, time-consuming, and expensive clean-sheet widebody this time around.

But opting for the cheaper update has already caused problems before.

When building the 737 Max — an update to the popular narrowbody — Boeing installed a system that was responsible for crashing two planes in 2018 and 2019.

The system, known as MCAS, was new. But Boeing didn't clue airlines in because it was selling the Max as an enhanced version of the next-generation 737 family rather than as an entirely new plane and needed it to require minimal pilot training.

Similar design flaws on its 777X would further plague Boeing's chance at revival.

"There's a lot of things that Boeing's going to have to do that was not done on the 777-300ER," Aviation Week's chief regulation and safety editor said in a July 2023 podcast. "The biggest thing, again, as we're seeing on the 737s, is validating these system safety assessments that have to do with making assumptions about pilot reactions during non-normal situations."

The 777X needs the trust of key Middle Eastern customers

Middle Eastern carriers Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad Airways make up the bulk of the 777X orders, taking interest in both the $442 million 777-9 and the $410 million 777-8.

Emirates added 90 more 777Xs to its order book in late 2023, bringing its total to 205, 35 of which are for the smaller variant. Qatar and Etihad Airways have also ordered 74 and 25 777-9s, respectively, for a collective 304 777X planes.

The 777X's size and efficiency make it favorable for these carriers' strong hub-and-spoke networks that rely on big planes to shuttle as many people as possible between cities at once. The three carriers plan to phase out fuel-hungry planes like the A380 quad-jet to be replaced by the more efficient 777X.

Despite the substantial investment, Emirates president Tim Clark has voiced his concern over Boeing's 777X delays. According to Reuters, the airline is flying costly older jets longer than expected, eating into its bottom line.

Still, Clark told The Air Current the 777X is a promising plane but noted that its problems are bad for airlines relying on Boeing to fulfill their demand needs because it's taking so long to certify.

Boeing is likely too far in to cancel the program, Aboulafia said, and airlines and Boeing will eventually benefit once the new widebody hits the market.

"The 777X is definitely worth pursuing," Aboulafia said. "It's the largest jetliner on the market, which is always useful for slot-constrained airlines. And the order book is respectable, if not fantastic, for a program at this stage."

• Forage offers a job simulation tool to help users understand roles at top firms.
• The tool targets college students and new job seekers amid a tougher job market for some positions.
• Tom Brunskill co-founded Forage to address gaps in career preparation from schools.

Heads-up, Boston Consulting Group: I might be sending over my résumé.

That's because after using a job simulation tool for a short time, I have a better sense of what working at the prestigious consulting firm might be like.

The free online tool I used is produced by a San Francisco company called Forage. It's designed to give college students and others just starting out a sense of what they'd be doing if they landed a job at a consulting firm like BCG or KPMG, big banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, and retailers like Lululemon.

That could come in handy because the job market has slowed from the frenzied hiring we saw a couple of years ago. Now, given it might take longer to land a role, it makes sense to do what you can to ensure it's a good fit.

Tom Brunskill is a cofounder of Forage and now serves as its VP and general manager after education company EAB acquired it in April. He told Business Insider that, growing up in a small town in Australia, he didn't come from a line of bankers, lawyers, or accountants. That made his decision to become a corporate lawyer somewhat arbitrary, he said.

"I used 'Boston Legal' and 'Suits' as my main source of inspiration for choosing a career," Brunskill said.

Forage, he said, is designed to address what he sees as a big problem: High schools and universities often don't do an adequate job equipping young people with the skills, knowledge, resources, or confidence to find careers that align with their abilities and interests.

In the roughly 90 minutes I spent using Forage, the tool made me do some work. No surprise, given it was consulting, it involved producing slides. The tool also made me think like a consultant — or at least try to.

Instead of reading others' reviews of what it's like to work at the firm, I watched short videos from BCG consultants, read articles they'd written, and tackled those decks.

Here's what it was like:

The course I took came in two parts.

It began by asking me to click at least one of several reasons I was taking the course. Those were: I'm not really sure what a consultant at BCG does; I've heard about BCG and want to know more; I want to build my skills in consulting to help my career; and I want to increase my chances of getting hired by BCG.

It also came with the warning that the virtual experience wasn't meant to be used on my résumé, LinkedIn profile, or elsewhere to imply that I had experience working for or doing an internship with BCG. Fair enough.

The first section was meant to help me think creatively, "like a BCG consultant," by shifting my mental models. To help me get there, I watched a TED Talk by a BCG partner on fostering creativity in business. The nearly eight-minute video focused on how the key to creativity is doubt.

The system laid out the work I needed to do.

Next, I read a BCG article on ideas for generating ideas. It highlighted the importance of effectively framing questions and drawing up "binding constraints and criteria for success" instead of so-called blue-sky thinking, which, the article contends, often doesn't lead to useful ideas. I feel like I'm getting a good education so far in consultant jargon, at least.

From there, I downloaded some slides. My task was, in part, to show how a trend that might be perceived as a threat could be made into an opportunity. The example threat was about aging demographics. The possible opportunity was the emergence of a "silver market."

I had to try to think like a consultant though I'm no BCG whiz.

Now, it was my turn. I had to find the silver lining in urban congestion. I came up with the rather clumsy "opportunities for high-volume services in dense markets." The example answer that a bona fide BCGer might give was "growth cluster of the future," the simulation showed me.

From there, I explored how shifting our mental models can help us solve problems and uncover opportunities. One example included the French manufacturer Bic. The company went from only making pens to adding goods like razors and lighters by considering itself a producer of low-cost plastic goods rather than just ballpoints, according to the simulation.

I filled out some more slides about how budget airlines had disrupted the aviation industry. Once again, the BCG crew topped my answers. Regardless, I found it helpful to compare what I answered to what the pros came up with.

I finished one task and moved to another about a fictional clothing company.

In the second section, my job was to generate ideas to help a fictional luxury clothes producer boost sales. I watched another short video and read an article on how to conduct effective brainstorming sessions. It dismissed the idea of thinking outside the box in favor of using them as helpful constraints — the way a string doesn't impede a kite but enables it to fly.

I filled in more slides on how to reframe the question, "How could we sell more outerwear this winter season?" I had to come up with three new approaches. One slide contained this tip: "A good question for brainstorming will be narrow and concrete, so that people feel they know how to begin answering it."

It reminded me of the advice for posing questions to artificial intelligence tools.

I gave some less-than-stellar answers compared with the sample. The lesson then went into the value of "identifying and doubting one's current boxes" and figuring out which ones need to be rethought or even trashed.

It turns out my reframed questions in this section weren't as narrow as they should have been. So, my one-man brainstorm wasn't as fruitful as what a well-trained consultant might produce. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the exercise, and it made me think.

The system gave me some ideas to talk about what I'd completed.

Ultimately, by giving me small tasks to work through, the intro to life at BCG made me sometimes forget that I was doing a simulation. I was focused on the work.

That's why the effort felt like a reasonable way to get a sense of what working in such a role at BCG might be like. Of course, it could be off, but because Forage works with the employers to develop the courses, there are company insiders signing off on the content.

If I were new in my career, I could choose to share the results of the company whose job simulation I completed to signal to recruiters I'm interested.

Forage also suggested text to add to sections of my résumé about how I'd completed a strategy consulting job simulation and offered tips for using my experience on Forage to help answer the question, "Why are you interested in this role?"

Spending time on a simulation is a low-stakes way to help avoid taking the wrong job.

The simulation I completed wasn't that long; some Forage offers take several hours to complete. Brunskill said it's all an effort to give students a view into what the work could be like.

The best news is that students who start one and aren't into the work don't have to go into the wrong field.

"It's just as powerful telling a student a role that isn't suited to them as it is telling them which careers do align with their skills and interests," Brunskill said.

• McDonald's US boss says trials of the McPlant weren't successful stateside.
• But the meat-free burger is on menus elsewhere, including Germany, Portugal, and the UK.
• Here's how the UK's vegan version of the McPlant compares to a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

Don't expect to see the McPlant returning to McDonald's menus in the US anytime soon.

Trials of the meat-free burger in 2021 and 2022 were "not successful" because there simply wasn't enough demand among American diners, Joe Erlinger, the president of McDonald's US, said in late June at The Wall Street Journal's Global Food Forum.

"I don't think the US consumer is coming to McDonald's or looking for the McPlant or other plant-based proteins from McDonald's," he said. "It's a trend that we'll continue to monitor."

The McPlant is available elsewhere in the world, though, like in Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The patty, developed with Beyond Meat, is made from pea and rice proteins and served with American or cheddar cheese, ketchup, sandwich sauce, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles.

In these countries, McDonald's notes that it can't rule out contamination with meat — in the Netherlands, for example, the burger is described as being "for flexitarians."

But at McDonald's in the UK, where the McPlant has been on menus since November 2021, the burger is certified as vegan. It's served with vegan cheese and sandwich sauce.

I got a McPlant, as well as the most comparable burger on the menu, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, from a McDonald's in London. Here's how they stacked up.

Both burgers came in custom boxes. The McPlant box featured common motifs of plant-based food — natural colors and a small plant symbol. The Quarter Pounder had much brighter packaging.

Inside, both burgers looked remarkably similar. They were pretty much identical in size.

I weighed the burgers when I got home. Both came in at about 14.4 ounces.

They had slightly different fillings, though.

Both burgers came with onion, pickles, ketchup, and mustard. The McPlant also came with lettuce, tomato, and vegan sandwich sauce. I was able to add sandwich sauce to the Quarter Pounder with Cheese to make a fairer comparison, but there wasn't an option to add lettuce and tomato.

The McPlant came with one slice of vegan cheese, while the Quarter Pounder with Cheese had two slices of processed cheese. The photos show that the cheese in the Quarter Pounder with Cheese had started to melt, while the vegan cheese in the McPlant hadn't.

One thing notable about the McPlant was how smooth and rounded the patty was. This made it look a bit artificial, compared to the rough edges of the meaty patty.

Still, it generally just looked like a normal, meaty burger when the top bun was on top.

It tasted really good to me, though I am accustomed to the taste of vegan burgers. I know that for some people, the taste of plant-based meat can be a big surprise at first.

I thought that the patty was excellent. It was served in a sesame seed bun, like many of McDonald's other burgers, including its iconic Big Mac. The burger was full of sauce — perhaps a little too much, because of the ketchup, mustard, and sandwich sauce.

The meaty patty in the Quarter Pounder with Cheese tasted a little drier to me. I surprisingly couldn't taste much difference between the cheeses in both burgers, perhaps because the other ingredients overpowered them, but I liked that the dairy cheese melted properly.

For a flexitarian like me, who actually enjoys the taste of plant-based meat, I thought that the McPlant was a great option for McDonald's to have on its menu.

It also diversifies McDonald's vegan line-up by adding a fake meat option: The other vegan options include the Vegetable Deluxe and a spicy veggie wrap, both made using the same red pepper, pesto, yellow split pea, and rice dippers.

I'm surprised McDonald's hasn't yet released a vegan version of its most iconic burger, though: The Big Mac.

The McPlant and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese both cost the same price at the restaurant I visited: £4.39, or $5.58. Both could be upgraded to a meal with fries and a drink. You could pay to add a second patty to the McPlant, though there was no option to add extra cheese.

I was glad that McDonald's priced the vegan burger the same as a comparable meaty burger: Some restaurants charge extra for vegan patties in burgers, plant-based cheese on pizzas, and oat milk in coffees.

I don't eat from fast-food chains often — I try to support independent businesses. But if I returned to McDonald's, I would definitely order the McPlant again.

• Cracker Barrel has lost relevance with customers, its CEO said in May.
• Customers and an employee told BI that the company's food quality has declined.
• The chain could reinvent itself or bring back some axed menu items to win back eaters, they said.

In the late 1980s, Neal Klein and his family had several options when they wanted a hot meal on road trips through the South to visit relatives.

Only Cracker Barrel offered good food, "almost Disney World quality" service, and a game with pegs on a wooden board that his family could play as they waited. "I was charmed," Klein said. "Those are things that stay with you, and they make quite a memory."

But a Thanksgiving turkey dinner last fall at a Cracker Barrel in Florida, where Klein now lives, shattered that image.

"It tasted cheap," Klein said. "The stuffing was gloppy. It just had an unappetizing feel because everything had started to really congeal."

Cracker Barrel has lost relevance with many of its formerly loyal customers — something even CEO Julie Felss Masino admitted during a company call with investors in May. The same month, the restaurant chain lowered its earnings expectations for the rest of its 2024 fiscal year, citing "weaker-than-anticipated traffic" at its locations.

"We've got to drive and reignite relevancy, and then we have to have food and an experience that guests crave," she said.

Three customers and an employee Business Insider spoke with said that Masino has her work cut out for her. They also pointed to some ways Cracker Barrel could get diners back in the chain's iconic rocking chairs waiting for a table.

Customers say that Cracker Barrel doesn't live up to its 'homestyle cooking' promise

Cracker Barrel has long promised "homestyle cooking" at its restaurants just off interstates and major roads.

However, food quality issues were a theme among the customers that BI spoke with.

After Thanksgiving, Klein said he gave his local Cracker Barrel another shot on Easter Sunday. But if anything, he said, the experience was worse. The meat was overcooked and oversalted, he said, and the side of stuffing "was a greenish brown" with "a gray patina to it."

"It's really a tragedy," he said. "You realize you're in the middle of a crumbling citadel, and you're like, 'Holy crap, this is very sad.'"

Tom Smith, a Chicago-area Cracker Barrel customer who briefly worked a night shift at one of the restaurants, said he and his wife visit for its pancakes. He's also a fan of Cracker Barrel's Loaded Hashbrown Casserole, which is topped with bacon bits and melted cheese.

"But of all the other stuff I have had, it's just been average," he said. "I have had the fried chicken. I was like, 'It's good fried chicken, but so is Popeyes.'"

It wasn't always like this.

Bob Horner still remembers going to some of the first Cracker Barrel restaurants in Tennessee in the 1970s.

"The food was good, and the people were friendly," he said. "It was good home cooking."

About 10 years ago, Horner said he started noticing some of his go-to orders, red-eye gravy and the chicken salad sandwich, disappearing from the menu.

Then, after pandemic restrictions started to ease, he noticed another dip. "The food quality went down, the portion size went down, the prices went up," Horner said.

"Our menu has evolved since we first opened our doors in 1969 and it will continue to evolve," a Cracker Barrel spokesperson said. The company has changed its menu to "allow us to make room for new, craveable dishes."

The spokesperson added that Cracker Barrel is testing roughly 20 new items, such as Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd's Pie and Slow-Braised Pot Roast, at restaurants in Texas. The chain is also trialing "a new menu design that's easier for guests to navigate, and an optimized core menu reducing recipe complexities for employees."

Cracker Barrel's push to sell more rubs some customers the wrong way

While executives have said little about food quality at Cracker Barrel, they have touted new additions to the menu. Many, they say, are meant to increase "check size" — essentially, to get patrons to spend more money. That's been a tall task, given that prices at restaurants remain high thanks to inflation.

One example is offering diners extra food to take home.

Last year, Cracker Barrel started advertising that customers could take home an extra entrée, such as fried chicken and mac n' cheese, for $5 if they purchased a regular one.

But the option doesn't land well with some guests.

One Cracker Barrel hostess in the Midwest, who asked not to be named in this article due to potential retaliation at work, said that her manager requires her to approach customers who are finishing their meals with a tray of the entrées and ask them if they'd like one to take with them. BI verified the hostess' identity and employment.

"You're supposed to come up with scenarios," she said. "'You have a kid at home, give him some meatloaf.'"

Last month, one guest responded: "It seems like Cracker Barrel is trying to squeeze every dollar out of its patrons."

"In my mind, I said, 'Yeah, good point,'" the hostess said.

A Cracker Barrel spokesperson said patrons "have responded positively" to the $5 offering since it was introduced last year. The spokesperson did not comment on whether it is company policy to have employees pitch the entrées as described by the hostess.

The hostess added that management at her restaurant has told servers to sell guests more drinks, such as fancy coffees or beer. But often, the servers are "practically in tears because people are just ordering water with lemon," she said.

"They have a pretty big turnover of servers and people who clean up," she added.

Cracker Barrel could win back customers with a new definition of nostalgia

Bringing back some discontinued menu items could draw in some customers, Horner said. "I've heard a thousand times from people: 'Bring back the chicken liver dinner,'" he said.

"If I could speak directly to the CEO," Horner said, "I would just tell her flat out: 'It's the food. It's not the decorations of a wall. It's not serving alcohol.'"

"I don't go to Cracker Barrel or order a glass of wine or a mixed drink or a beer," he added.

But Cracker Barrel's decor may not be helping. Many of the chain's roughly 660 locations are decked out in 1940s advertisements, signs for tractor repair shops, and other trinkets that remind diners of the early 20th century and a rural lifestyle.

That may have worked a few decades ago, when people who lived through the Great Depression and World War II were frequent guests at Cracker Barrel stores. But as the population has aged, the signifiers of nostalgia have also changed, said Smith, the Chicago-area customer.

Smith, who is 69, said much of the 1930s and 1940s decor even looks old to him. "You look at somebody that's 30, and they might as well have dinosaurs on the wall," he said.

"'Nostalgia' today would be PAC Man or Space Invaders," he added.

CEO Masino, who previously held executive roles at Taco Bell and Starbucks, has indicated that changes are coming to Cracker Barrel. The chain is testing new restaurant layouts, including "bookcases that open up the sight lines and allow for different displays," she said on the May earnings call.

But Klein, the Florida patron who got his first taste of Cracker Barrel in the 80s, said he's already moved on. He now visits a local diner when he wants a hearty meal out.

"Life is really short," he told BI. "Do I really need to eat at chain restaurants more than a couple of times?"

Do you work at Cracker Barrel or another major restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

• Hope Davis is a 47-year-old mom of three in New Orleans.
• She receives $1,000 monthly from the state ACLU's guaranteed monthly income program.
• The program targets people who have been involved with the criminal justice system.

This is an As Told To essay based on a conversation with Hope Davis, a participant in a guaranteed basic income program in Louisiana that focuses on reparations and assisting those involved in the criminal justice system. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I had never heard of the ACLU before in my life, but they ended up helping me with some legal troubles. I really felt like I had a family member on my side and like somebody actually cared. They called me one day and said they have a program that offers $1,000 a month, along with counseling programs and a bunch of other things. I said, "Sign me up."

To this day, it's unbelievable they picked me. I never thought in a million years that I would be in a position where somebody is giving me $1,000 a month for a year. It is overwhelming, and it also came at a very critical time in my life.

I'm a widow with three sons, two of whom are grown up and one younger one who lives with me. I'm unemployed, but I am a certified chef. I lost my job, so this program came at just the right time when the payments started in November. It's helping me pay a lot of personal bills, and it's helping me do activism work in my community.

Working in a community is something new and different for me. I got our tenant organization up and running again, so the stress for me right now is getting people involved in rebuilding and redeveloping our community. We meet monthly, so I have to run copies and buy lunches, gifts, books, things like that. I feel good when I'm getting a gathering together and can give something back. The guaranteed monthly income program has really given me peace of mind.

Even when I was married and my husband and I were together with three children, he always worked, and I always worked. We still struggled, and sometimes I even had two jobs. It was hard. The rent was always high. I was evicted at one point and sleeping in my vehicle for four or five months while trying to find a place to live.

I know people who lost their jobs and don't know how to apply for unemployment. I know women who are pregnant and don't know how to apply to get WIC. I went out into the neighborhood looking to see who I could help because I've seen situations like this all my life where people can't find help even when programs are out there. The government has programs out there ready to assist, and they're just not being implemented in the neighborhoods, and I think that's really sad. So that is my endeavor, that is my passion, to find those programs and bring them to the neighborhood. And I'm using the funds to help me do that.

• "The Man with 1000 Kids" puts a prolific sperm donor, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, in the spotlight.
• It shows how families slowly realize the sheer number of children he has fathered.
• Meijer told Business Insider that he's planning to take legal action against Netflix.

"The Man with 1000 Kids" tells the story of four couples and a single woman as they gradually realize their sperm donor has fathered hundreds of children.

The Netflix docuseries details how Jonathan Jacob Meijer told those who used him as a donor that he had only helped a handful of families. But as parents in The Netherlands realize their children born using sperm donors look oddly similar, it becomes clear that wasn't the case. It later emerges he has been donating sperm around the world.

The families quickly become fearful of the potential dangers to future generations if half-siblings unknowingly have children together.

A man identified as John, one half of a couple who used Meijer, said on the show: "We thought, 'Oh fuck. What if these children meet each other and maybe have a connection or fall in love and they don't know they are related?' That's when the real panic started. That's when we saw the real danger of this."

Jonathan Jacob Meijer was banned from donating sperm in The Netherlands

In April 2023, Meijer was banned from donating sperm to fertility clinics by the Hague District Court in his native Netherlands, after it emerged he had fathered over 500 children, The Independent reported.

He will be fined €100,000 for every violation if he donates again.

An anonymous sperm donor also alleged in the series that Meijer and another man, identified only as Leon, ran a website called "Longing for a Child" to try to father as many children as possible. The anonymous donor claimed that Meijer and Leon mixed their sperm samples together to play "sperm roulette," to see who the child would look like.

In an email to Business Insider, Meijer denied running the site.

"I have never ran a website, there's no evidence for that. I had posted my advertisement on that very website in the early years of my donating, 2008-2014," he wrote. "What Leon did is unclear to me, I have met him 4-5 times in my life, he passed away two years ago."

Meijer added, referring to Netflix: "I will take legal action for slander, this is really insane! I will take legal action, not only because of the mixing but some other claims as well."

Netflix didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

Meijer still posts videos of himself traveling on YouTube

The docuseries details how Meijer traveled a lot for work, which is why some of the mothers involved were not able to speak to him face-to-face when they discovered just how many children were conceived using his sperm samples.

He frequently posts videos to his YouTube channel about his thoughts on various topics, such as spirituality, traditional wives, raw meat diets, and his reaction to "The Man with 1000 Kids."

On May 5th, he uploaded a video from Tanzania, explaining that he decided to leave the Netherlands because it had become overpopulated and that he wanted to be closer to nature.

In his most recent upload on July 3rd, Meijer was on a beach in Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa. He explained that he spent "over 50,000 hours" as a sperm donor until 2019, when he said he stopped donating to clinics.