The developed world is headed towards extinction. Just take a look at this table showing fertility rates across every developed nation. Of the 53 countries, only one has a fertility rate above replenishment. The average fertility rate is about 40% lower than what is needed simply for replenishment. Here in America, the average woman only … Continue reading We Need Drastic Measures to Preserve Women’s Rights
In past articles, we have explored Election By Jury (EBJ) - the idea that our political representatives (ie, mayors, governors, senators etc) should be elected by a jury in a courtroom-like setting (see here for more details). Anyone familiar with the sortition movement would notice that this idea has many parallels to a similar idea … Continue reading Election By Jury vs Citizen Assemblies
Who pays the tariff? To anyone who has been following the news in the past day, this question has suddenly taken on outsized importance. With the US Government firing the opening salvos in a global trade war, we have seen in just one day: The US stock market fall 5% International stock markets fall 2% … Continue reading Who Pays the Tariff – How Voter Ignorance Impacts Public Policy
For years, I labored under the illusion that I was the first to advocate for Election By Jury - at least in the modern era. Imagine my delight when I discovered that H.G. Wells had championed the same idea and made the exact same arguments an entire century before me. To anyone who (understandably) doesn't … Continue reading Election By Jury – by H.G. Wells
look, whatever the {official economic} charts say is a 100% bold faced lie. have you seen the price of a little ceasars pizza? it's jumped nearly 50% in the last 4 years. my salary has not gone up 50% relative to my experiece in the last 4 years. most recently i got a salary cut. … Continue reading To Save Democracy, We Need to Rebuild Trust In Our Institutions
It’s hard to imagine a more incompetent group of people than literally everyone involved in the latest election season. Let’s go down the list. Donald Trump After losing a closely fought election in 2020, the smart thing to do would have been to concede gracefully and plot a comeback for the next election season. If … Continue reading 2024 American Presidential Election – A Comedy of Errors
Individual income taxes are very progressive: If you make $50,000/year, you pay 16% in taxes If you make $100,000/year, you pay 22% in taxes If you make $500,000/year, you pay 32% in taxes In contrast, business taxes are completely flat. The federal corporate income tax rate is a flat 21%. Which means that: A small … Continue reading The Best Way to Break Up Mega-Corporations: Progressive Taxes
3 years after the Squid Game, Netflix has a new Korean dystopian game-based TV show. It’s called “The 8 Show”. The directing is awful. The cinematography is laughably bad. The plot has more holes than swiss cheese. And yet, as a work of art, it has surpassed Squid Game. And no one knows about it. … Continue reading 8 Show – The Best TV Series You Haven’t Seen
Using violence to achieve political goals violates the very foundations of any democracy. We should all denounce political violence of all forms. This includes the assassination attempt on Trump in the past week. We have elections for a reason - no one should ever attempt to subvert the electoral process by assassinating a politician they … Continue reading Donald Trump – Both Victim and Perpetrator of Political Violence
The idea behind Social Security is remarkably simple. People aren’t disciplined enough to save and invest their money responsibly. Hence, the Social Security program automatically deducts 12.4% of your income from every paycheck (half directly from you, and the other half from your employer). And once you retire, you receive a pension roughly proportional to … Continue reading Social Security could have been paying us twice as much
Say what you will about the Republican party, but they sure know how to get what they want. Case in point: government spending. Everyone has something they would like to get from the government. Government workers want more pay. Soldiers want better veterans’ benefits. Retirees want enhanced social security and medicare. Youths want subsidized college … Continue reading Starve the Beast – How to get shit done in your life
Imagine if you were accused of murder, and facing life in prison. Who would you want deciding your fate? A jury of randomly selected citizens, who have spent weeks sitting in a moderated courtroom, listening to all evidence and testimony presented by both sides? Or a public referendum where every single person in your state … Continue reading Election by Jury – Ten Years On
There are protests, and then there are protests. Some protests are peaceful non-disruptive demonstrations. They gather large groups of people in places where they cause minimal disruption to the lives of non-protestors. If they manage to attract lots of people, and if their cause is morally appealing, they succeed in raising awareness and creating political … Continue reading I Shouldn’t Have The Right to Disrupt Your Life
The philosopher Simone Weil posed a very insightful metaphor that I think is particularly apt today. To paraphrase greatly: Imagine if you were a mathematician trying to solve some very hard problems. If by chance you arrive at an odd number as an answer, everything is fine and life goes on as normal. But if … Continue reading The Israel-Palestine Debate Shows The Dangers of Groupthink
TLDR: Base-16. Read on for a longer explanation if you haven't heard that term before. Yes, you read the title right. Under some specific circumstances and contexts, 4 times 4 is indeed 10. And this isn’t just abstract philosophizing or a gimmick - this is something engineers are directly working with and utilizing every day, … Continue reading Proof that 4×4 is sometimes 10
As an elder-millennial, I’ve seen boredom evolve dramatically over the course of my life. It has happened slowly, gradually, over many decades. So slowly that I never realized just how radically it has been transformed. And just how deeply troubling it really is. 1980 - 1990: The Age of Socializing As a kid growing up … Continue reading The End of Boredom
Given recent news around Affirmative Action, it is understandable that it is all anyone can talk about. Regardless of your opinion on this topic however, what is not debatable is that countless millions of children in America are currently being shortchanged, and denied the childhood they need to succeed and pursue the American dream. Just … Continue reading Beyond Affirmative Action – How To Avoid Stunting Entire Generations of Kids
“Returns represent past performance, are not a guarantee of future performance, and are not indicative of any specific investment.” We’ve all seen these disclaimers a million times before. Most people who are financially savvy nod along when they hear this, and think they have fully internalized this. But in truth, most haven’t. The majority of … Continue reading Past Returns Do Not Predict Future Performance – Not Even for Indexes
Disclaimer: This discussion centers around American tax law. If you aren’t American and don’t live in America, you may not get much value out of this. Real talk. I thought I knew a lot about personal finance. I thought I knew everything I practically needed to know to minimize my tax bill as an average … Continue reading Nonqualified Dividends – You’re Probably Paying Too Much in Taxes
If you haven't been living in a cave, you've likely heard recent news involving an innocent black man being brutally beaten to death by multiple police officers. As someone who supports greater oversight and accountability for police officers, let me make a prediction. Any bipartisan outrage that currently exists, will in time be replaced by … Continue reading How to Get Yourself Stuck in a Political Quagmire – Why Nothing Will Change after Tyre Nichols
Outlook Zen 