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
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
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
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
Pop quiz: Which country inflicted the most Nazi casualties in WW2? Would it surprise you to learn that the answer is the Soviet Union… and that USA is not even a close second? That even British historians considered the Red Army to be "the main engine of Nazism's destruction"? To quote an Irish historian and … Continue reading How You Can Use Stories to Hack the Human Brain
For my friends everything, for my enemies the lawÓscar R. Benavides, President of Peru Not many know about this, but Hitler had a soft spot in his heart for at least one Jewish person. Eduard Bloch was an Austrian doctor practicing in Linz (Austria) and until 1907 the physician of Adolf Hitler’s family... Bloch was … Continue reading To Be Right, Live A Principled Life
Senators and Congressmen are forced to spend hours every day, making phone calls to the rich, listening intently to all their problems, promising them actions, and eventually, begging them for money. Presidential hopefuls, the leaders of their party and charismatic figureheads with supporters numbering in the millions, travel halfway around the country in order to … Continue reading How to Fix Political Corruption – Give Each Person a $25 Voucher
Imagine yourself being tried for a sensational crime, one that has gripped the passions of the entire country. It’s Casey Anthony, Duke Lacrosse and George Zimmerman, all rolled into one. Would you like to be tried in a well regulated courtroom, presided over by a judge, your fate in the hands of a jury that … Continue reading Reinventing Democracy – Election by Jury
Outlook Zen 