Representative Ocasio-Cortez presented her green new deal plan this week, and it s a non binding resolution. This is useful to give a signal which representatives are going for support a more es expansive policy, but it still leaves out details on how to do it. Wired did a fantastic job outlining the policy. She …
Author Archives: stidmatt
Why climate policy is stalled in Olympia
There has been a lot of talk over the last couple years about carbon taxation due to the work that I did along with friends of mine at Carbon Washington for Initiative 732, the first and most progressive carbon tax proposal in American history. We based it off of the highly successful carbon tax which …
Today’s musings
Today’s ban on transgender folk serving in the military is disheartening, and is going to make a lot of people upset. On top of that I witnessed a Lummi woman being poorly represented by her public defender in court today, and wish I had known where to refer her to get proper legal assistance. I …
Political Platform
I have written a lot on this blog over the last 9 years, and I have written about a lot of different topics. Here is a summary of my political values in a bullet format. Local elections (Bellingham and Whatcom County) Investigate the ability to have fare-free buses Have a local carbon tax, like in …
US border insecurity
Statistics: The American-Canadian border is the longest shared border in the world. The American-Canadian border is the only shared border between highly developed (GDP per capita > $20,000) in North America. there are 30 such borders in the world, 3 are with Saudi Arabia and its rich gulf neighbors, and the other 26 are in …
Status of the 2020 election, Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2019
The 2020 election is ramping up right now, and the candidates are lining up, and there are multiple fantastic candidates right now. The Republican Nomination will almost certainly go to Trump in 2020, but on the Democratic side of the aisle we have several really amazing people running, or who are almost certainly going to …
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Free transit for King County now!
Sawant calls for free transit during Viadoom — could it work? We all know that once people get used to not paying $104 a month for a monthly pass and then more for peak hours that it will be very difficult to make it extremely expensive again. On top of that, the easiest way to …
Design a Carbon Tax Now! Or, how to make a more efficient legislature to solve our problems.
Abstract Thoughts on how to design a more effective legislature to solve important issues like global warming by using ranked voting. Introduction It is now 2019. We are about to start the legislative session with the largest Democratic Majority in Washington State for 70 years, and if we are ever going to get progress done …
Use economics to make life decisions
Data available Life insurance Is life insurance a good deal? Dave Ramsey sells it, and certainly thinks it is a good idea. He is opposed to Whole Life Insurance, and I agree with him there. Life insurance pays out in the case of the death of the policy holder, for the amount you claim. If …
Non-contradicotry proposals
Economists usually say this: Don’t bail out the banks, that’s bad. Let them survive in a free market as they demand. Please don’t bail out big companies. Please make it easier to start a business. Everyone should have the right to own their work. Please don’t collectivize everything, that’s happened before, it didn’t work. Private …