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ISSUES

Should We Even Try to Recycle Plastics?

Should We Even Try to Recycle Plastics?

Pressuring plastic producers to recycle their products has gone on for decades. But two writers at the Atlantic have now concluded, “Plastic recycling does not work and will never work.” In the U.S. in 2021 only 5 percent of all post-consumer plastic was recycled. Furthermore, they say that the plastic producers deny this and those denials are “reminiscent of” the tobacco companies in making false claims. (For years, many tobacco firms  rejected the idea that cigarettes caused cancer.)

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Protecting Seniors from Inflation

Protecting Seniors from Inflation

Congress should do three things: (1) index the Social Security benefits tax, (2) let inflation indexed government bonds also index against inflation-induced higher taxes, and (3) let people exchange their non-indexed pensions for an inflation-indexed alternatives. More.

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A Health Reform Whose Time Has Come

A Health Reform Whose Time Has Come

The basic idea: take all the spending and tax subsidies we now provide to private health insurance and use that money to give every American not on a government health plan a refundable tax credit. This money could be used to purchase health insurance and make deposits to Health Savings Accounts, from which people could purchase health services directly. Rep. Pete Sessions has a bill that would do just that. More

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Your Home is a Great Hedge Against Inflation

Your Home is a Great Hedge Against Inflation

Buy now. Houses, like most physical assets, retain their real value during high inflation and have done far better than most such assets. Plus, if you buy a primary residence now and home prices fall, you won’t be affected unless you need to sell. As long as you have a stable job, can manage your mortgage, and don’t need to move anytime soon, a short-term drop in housing prices isn’t a concern.

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Solution for Student Debt

Solution for Student Debt

Let students and parents borrow as well as refinance their loans at the prevailing Treasury’s 30-year bond rate. This policy coupled with the ability to discharge student loans in bankruptcy will end the student loan crisis. More

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Obamacare: Promises Made, Promises Broken

Obamacare: Promises Made, Promises Broken

When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, health care was a major issue. Although many on the left were advocating single-payer, national health insurance, Obama pledged private health insurance reform instead.

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What’s Wrong with Planting More Trees?

What’s Wrong with Planting More Trees?

Planting trees to sequester carbon and prevent carbon dioxide emissions has become very popular (whether it is accomplishing much or not). Now the New York Times reports that the effort to save the world is causing local ecological harm by bringing in non-native species.

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Why a Billionaire’s Tax Could Be Bad for You

Why a Billionaire’s Tax Could Be Bad for You

The Biden administration is proposing a new tax on households worth more than $100 million. Tagged as a “billionaire tax,” the new levy would apply not just to ordinary income, but also to unrealized capital gains. If a wealthy person owns shares of stock and the stock is worth more today than when it was purchased, Biden wants the federal government to take 20 percent of the increase. So, what’s wrong with that?

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