GETTING OUT OF THE RED End tax-exempt health insurance
Normally, when workers are compensated for their labor, we tax their compensation. We call this radical idea an “income tax,” and with the advent of tax withholding in 1943, it became an almost ubiquitous feature of the American economy.
No national infrastructure investment bank
Last week, President Obama unveiled a $447 billion spending plan. Notice I say “spending plan,” rather than “stimulus plan” or “jobs plan,” because there is a difference. None of the plan’s components, which consist of roughly $250 billion in payroll tax cuts, $60 billion in unemployment insurance, and $140 billion to fund infrastructure (most of it going to a national infrastructure investment bank), can be considered significantly stimulative, and without stimulus, we’re unlikely to see many new jobs.
A taste of the new dining plan
Let me start by making a huge understatement: I like eating. In fact, I’m pretty sure if I polled everybody who is reading this, close to 99 percent of you would say the same thing — save the 1 percent who simply love to disagree with everything. Let me use this opportunity to make another obvious observation about myself: I like eating good food. I’m sure you all can attest that eating food that tastes delicious helps us start, continue, and end the day in a satisfactory way. At this point, I think it’s clear to say that this was similar to the logic employed by MIT last year when they decided to overhaul the dining system.
THE CONVERSATION Rick Perry: A Texas miracle?
As Rick Perry basks in his front-runner status, the national conversation is turning to the topic of Texas. Assuming Perry does indeed secure the Republican nomination, here is the discussion you can expect to hear up until election day:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: Because of an editing error, this letter omitted several words from the second sentence. It should read, “Yet data from the Guttmacher Institute show that the abortion rate is over twice as high for women who live with their partner as for those who do not.”
Sparking the conversation
As MIT students, we need to “engage in more public discourse.” Last Tuesday, The Tech’s call for undergraduates to move on from squabbling over student life complications was encouraging. The editorial invited a serious discussion of MIT’s social and political importance. In the coming weeks, complaints about little things on campus will die down. But it remains to be seen whether undergraduates will stand up and begin to participate in the larger debates that will not only shape the Institute, but the world. Let me begin where The Tech left off.
GUEST COLUMN Love trumps all
After reading Igor Yanovich’s Sept. 9 column on the abortion issue, I felt that it was time to add a woman’s viewpoint to this debate. Quite honestly, I take offense when one characterizes the pro-life movement as an attempt to keep women “domestic, weak, and submissive to men.” I’m not so naïve as to think that the anti-abortion movement is without flaws. However, I would like to offer a different pro-life perspective for your consideration. Once you read this, you can judge whether the pro-livfe case is really all about control over women.
The anti-stimulus argument
In 1965, Milton Friedman, the scion of right-wing economics, famously declared, “We are all Keynesians now.” If he were alive today, Friedman might add, “And we are all Keynesians still.” The view of mainstream economics (and myself) is that the United States is suffering from a lack of aggregate demand, and the solution to our economic woes is economic stimulus, i.e., some combination of tax cuts, government spending, and an expansion of our monetary supply.
GUEST COLUMN When ignorance trumps knowledge
Unfortunately, Ryan Normandin’s Sept. 2 column “Why life trumps choice” only too vividly demonstrates what sheer ignorance and self-serving feelings of moral superiority can lead to when people are not informed by either science or compassion. It makes me truly sad that a person affiliated with a great science school can provide such a colorful demonstration of that.
Doctrineless and self-absorbed
The decennial of the greatest terrorist attack against the United States is an occasion packed with retrospection and reflection. Every news network and publication is offering its two cents on what the U.S. did, what it should have done, and where it should go in the future. Normally, I might complain about the artificiality of it all — shouldn’t we take stock of matters near actual watershed moments rather than a random anniversary? But September 11, 2011, strikes me as a well-placed time for self-assessment — with bin Laden dead, Qaddafi in exile, and our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan coming to a conclusion, we may well be looking at an inflection point in our foreign affairs.
EDITORIAL Focus on what’s important
Being an MIT student gives you a voice that few other people have. Like it or not, the MIT name makes you a representative of modern science and engineering. It’s no small secret that the world turns to MIT for its understanding of science, technology and related policy — just pick up the science section of the New York Times for proof. We’re not exaggerating, then, when we say that the pulse of MIT’s campus has a substantial effect on the world beyond the Institute.
The dark side of an MIT brain
In the early 90s, a young man named Lead Wey ’93 arrived on campus at MIT, just like all of us have been these past few days. Like us, he was intelligent, driven, and had an entrepreneurial spirit. Like us, he experienced the rush of success after mastering a particularly difficult class or problem set, along with the humbling knowledge that everyone around you is just as smart as or smarter than yourself. His years at the Institute, which he attended for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees, were both rewarding and, at times, uncomfortable. Both the positive and negative shaped what this man would go on to do.
Nonsense, followed by begging
Frequent readers of this paper may recall a piece by MIT President Susan J. Hockfield and Harvard President Drew G. Faust in the Boston Globe, titled “Riding the Innovation Wave,” and this columnist’s negative response, “Voodoo Innovationomics.” Well, last Monday, President Hockfield was at it again, this time with a solo piece in the New York Times titled, “Manufacturing a Recovery.”
Abortion is a fundamental right
The debate over abortion is plagued by misconceptions and misinformation. Just last spring I received a pamphlet from a campus pro-life group claiming that abortion raises the risk of breast cancer, yet if we can consider the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health as a trustworthy source, this factoid has been thoroughly debunked. On the flip-side, some pro-choice advocates still maintain that an embryo is not alive. Even without this surplus obfuscation the issue is complicated and delicate; both positions in the debate represent legitimate values on their own terms. In the interest of clarity, I will attempt to put forth a reasoned argument in favor of a person’s right to an abortion.
Why life trumps choice
The abortion debate centers on two rights fundamental to American society: life and liberty. The two sides say as much, with one labeling itself “pro-life” and the other “pro-choice.” In general, it is accepted that individuals are free to do as they choose as long as those choices do not harm others, society, or themselves, within reason. There is certainly some leeway here, as the boundary between “not harmful enough” and “too harmful” is often fuzzy. We’ve seen this in the implementation and subsequent repeal of Prohibition, the debate over the legalization of marijuana, and other differences between states’ laws.
GETTING OUT OF THE RED The crisis in disability insurance
Social Security is primarily made of three insurance programs: old age insurance, insurance against on-the-job injuries (workers compensation), and insurance against career-ending disabilities (disability insurance). Old age insurance, being the bulk of Social Security, is what comes up in conversation most often. But the remainder of Social Security is in dire need of reform as well, and if Congress paid a little more attention to Disability Insurance (DI) in particular, they might go a considerable way toward fixing the nation’s budget deficit.
Embracing Africa’s newest nation
After decades of brutal fighting that left millions dead, South Sudan finally seceded from the North on July 9, forming the Republic of South Sudan. Led by President Salva Kiir, the South has many serious obstacles to overcome, including vast poverty, ongoing conflict with the north, and internal tribal violence. Regardless, secession is a vital step on Sudan’s journey towards a long-awaited prosperity, and it is important that the United States not only endorses the split, but also extends support to the months-old nation during this critical time of development, when the South’s government can so easily unravel.
EDITORIAL Wear a helmet!
For most MIT students, a brain is their most prized asset. So for the subset of those students who bike to class or work, we have one simple message: Wear your damn helmet.