GavinThink

The US federal tax system is terrible. It is inefficient, complicated and unfair. How about we replace it all with something simple and ...

This year's slam-dunk, gonna-pass-with-an-overwhelming-voice-vote article on the Town Meeting warrant is Article 28: "Reversing Ci...

Imagine there's a Federal Government program that is designed to help people... oh, I don't know, let's say help people lose wei...

The popular perception is that our do-nothing Congress is going to drive our country into a financial ditch. Tyler Cowen (one of my favori...

Tomorrow night Amherst Town Meeting takes up Article 17, which rezones a couple of "Village Centers" to encourage more mixed-use, ...

Is it OK to require people to pass a drug test before getting welfare benefits ? If you're a conservative, you probably think: "...

When economists talk about something being a "public good" they don't mean "nice stuff that the government does." ...

The big battle over raising the debt ceiling makes me wonder if there might be a better way of handling our national budget. What would ha...

Senators Schumer and Manchin are upset about Silk Road, a hidden website that is an "Ebay for illegal narcotics." They accept only...

First, to all of my liberal, union-friendly (and union-employed) friends and acquaintances-- please don't hate me. I'm an equal-opp...

My last post got me thinking about how to rejigger things to encourage more donations to private charities. Maybe we should mandate donat...

Sam Harris over at the Huffington Post has a " New Year's Resolution for the Rich ." Re-reading it, I'm a little confuse...

So we've promised our public employees pension packages that were supposed to be funded with profits from AAA-rated, regulator-approved ...

A couple of years ago Richard Morse suggested I read The Weather Makers to get a convincing argument for why global warming is a Really Big...

I'm trying hard to think positive thoughts about the Innovate Holyoke project that just got $25M in state funding to help create a hig...

Imagine for a minute that global warming isn't anthropogenic-- that it is happening, but it is happening because of... oh, I dunno, suns...

In 1980 Proposition 2½ was passed by Massachusetts voters. But Amherst voters were against it by a 3 to 1 margin. I wonder what would have h...

I don't understand the liberal angst over the recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to spend money on political campaig...

So the deal is roughly -- the government will guarantee that I can buy catastrophic coverage for my family for 2% of income with a annual de...

Kookaburra sits in the Old Gum Tree... I'm playing with fire here; the Kookaburra song is still copyrighted. I'm pretty sure quotin...