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GavinThink: March 2014

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Friday, March 28, 2014. Stop with the lockdowns already. When I was in school, the Big Bad Boogey-Man was Russia, and we were afraid of nuclear war. I remember "duck and cover" drills in school, in case of nuclear attack. Looking back, wasn't that unnecessary fear-mongering? Which makes my skeptical mind wonder: is that just unnecessary fear-mongering? How many times has a school going into "lockdown" saved lives or injury? I also remember learning to sin...

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GavinThink: Fiscal Cliff: meh

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2012/11/fiscal-cliff-meh.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Friday, November 16, 2012. Has had several thought-provoking tweets recently (he's @EconTalker. Professor Roberts was my favorite economist even before he invited me to be on his podcast. Because he is always rational and skeptical, especially. About data or ideas that reinforce his own biases. Listen to a few episodes of EconTalk. To hear what I mean. Fiscal cliff will lower federal spending from $3.8 trillion to $3.7 trillion. Oh the horror! Interest ra...

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GavinThink: Big Picture Economics

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-picture-economics.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Friday, November 07, 2008. Politicians love to talk about how they're going to make us better off. They'll give the middle class a tax cut, or declare War on Poverty, or stimulate the economy or spend money and create jobs. Our environment is cleaner and healthier than it used to be, too, because they figured out cleaner, safer, more efficient ways of producing goods and energy and entertainment. Does increasing the minimum wage make us more productive?

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GavinThink: May 2013

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2013_05_01_archive.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Wednesday, May 15, 2013. OPEB is bureaucrat-ese for "Other Post-Employment Benefits.". We'll be hearing about it more and more in Amherst Town Meeting, because "we" (past Town Meetings / Select Boards) have promised more than 90 million dollars in benefits that "we" didn't put aside money to pay. Oops That is more than the Town's total yearly budget. What should Amherst do? Maybe the most responsible thing to do is to be irresponsible. Links to this post.

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GavinThink: The Select Committee on Goals

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2008/01/select-committee-on-goals.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Saturday, January 26, 2008. The Select Committee on Goals. I went back to the Jones Library a few weeks ago and read the "Select Committee on Goals (SCOG)" - the planning document that (I'm told) Amherst has been roughly following for the last 35 years. It replaced the "Downe Comprehensive Plan" of 1969 (which I wrote about. So how well did it work? Did Amherst meet the Select Committee's Goals? A few of the goals identified in the SCOG report are:. I lik...

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GavinThink: April 2014

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2014_04_01_archive.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Wednesday, April 02, 2014. Are kids really safer in schools? A couple of comments on my last post challenge my assertion that "Kids are much safer in school than any other place.". I admit, I was lazy, I didn't do any research to back up that statement; I'm parroting Lenore at Free Range Kids. But it got me to thinking: how would I go about proving or disproving that kids are safer in school than anyplace else? Then, I'd find a data source (or, ideally, t...

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GavinThink: OPEB funding

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2013/05/opeb-funding.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Wednesday, May 15, 2013. OPEB is bureaucrat-ese for "Other Post-Employment Benefits.". We'll be hearing about it more and more in Amherst Town Meeting, because "we" (past Town Meetings / Select Boards) have promised more than 90 million dollars in benefits that "we" didn't put aside money to pay. Oops That is more than the Town's total yearly budget. What should Amherst do? Maybe the most responsible thing to do is to be irresponsible.

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GavinThink: June 2012

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Friday, June 29, 2012. Yesterday the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. On a meta-level, the decision made me happy- it shows that at least one of the Supreme Court justices thinks for himself and doesn't always fit into the "Conservative" pigeon-hole that the media likes to put people into. But I don't think the Affordable Care Act will succeed in making health care more affordable. After 2014 I predict a whole lot of healthy people will figur...

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GavinThink: March 2013

http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html

Political and other opinions from Gavin Andresen. Sunday, March 24, 2013. High Symbolism, Low Substance debate. Something I've been thinking about a lot lately:. The minimum wage issue is high on symbolism and low on substance. It feels to me like 98% of the political debate I see is over issues that, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter. All high symbolism, low substance. Links to this post. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). High Symbolism, Low Substance debate. View my complete profile.