November, 2018 One October morning in 1966 I walked out to Beacon Street in Brookline where I would wait for the streetcar I took every morning to my job in Boston’s Back Bay. I am grumpy in the morning and I was not happy to see a guy greeting everyone who came to the stop,…
Category: Politics & Economics
You’re living in a “Laboratory for Democracy.”
September, 2018 1. Did you know there are three states that do all their voting by mail? (Answers to all questions below.) 2. Do you know how vote-by-mail has affected the number of people who vote? Have you heard about any problems with it? 3. Do you know which city in Massachusetts uses Ranked Choice…
There oughtta (NOT) be a law!
April 2018 About 60 years ago, there was a program on TV (black and white only) called “You Asked for it.” They did a lot of whacky things on that show, but the one I remember was their offering someone $1,000 if they could walk the streets of New York for an hour without breaking…
They’re coming for your Medicare!
March, 2018 Complaining about the government is a long-time tradition in the United States. And a good one. Like all large organizations, government organizations are inherently unmanageable. They will inevitably become bloated and inefficient without the constant vigilance of the citizens they are supposed to serve. But, for all its faults and inefficiencies, a complex…
We can’t have both lower taxes and higher expenditures without borrowing from our grand kids
February 2018 There are many who think that the supply side theory being advanced by a large number of conservative Republicans is basically a fraud. The theory, which is attributed to something the economist Arthur Laffer wrote on a napkin says that by cutting tax rates, the economy will be so stimulated that tax revenues…