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Saving money in an overlooked place

President-elect Trump and nominees for his upcoming administration often speak about cutting spending in order to reduce the debt. Some of the targets are familiar, but one that is never mentioned is the amount of money that could be saved by releasing, or not incarcerating in the first place, nonviolent offenders. According to The Sentencing Project, 72.1 percent of federal prisoners are serving time for a nonviolent offense and have no history of violence. More than half are for drug offenses. The U.S. has more people incarcerated in jails and prisons than any other “free” ...

Congestion pricing finally comes to N.Y.

New York has been named the most traffic gridlocked city in the world with Midtown Manhattan the most congested part. For years, the city has tried to install congestion pricing to reduce the number of vehicles. The money collected would be used to fix the crumbling subway system. How bad was the congestion? The intersections were so blocked by cars and trucks that pedestrians couldn’t even see the “walk” signs on the other side. When they figured it was their turn to cross, they would squeeze their bodies between fenders. Now the fee for cars in peak hours is a one-time daily ...

Respect for the rule of law in US

Respect for the rule of law in the United States can hardly be helped by the fact that so many Americans don’t know what it means. Last year’s annual civics survey by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center found that one-third of our countrymen couldn’t name all three branches of government — and almost 1 in 5 couldn’t name one. It’s tough to summon opposition to the undermining of the rule of law among those who don’t know the difference between checks and balances and, say, Chubby Checker. The crumbling of trust in the very civic institutions ...

New year, same problems as old year

The Romans set January as the first month of the year. Originally, March had been the start of the new year. But the early Roman kings, before the republic, moved it to coincide with Janus, a two-faced god who looked backward with an old face and forward with a young face. Julius Caesar realigned Roman governance around January being the start of a new year of governance. The reality, however, is it is arbitrary and we have all given great psychological importance to it. The pagans of Rome engaged in debauchery and resolutions for the new year — something modernity has embraced. The ...

The 21st century so far: a flop

As we reach the quarter-century mark, the 21st century has turned out a tragic disappointment. Hopes were high, leaving the world wars and Holocaust of the 20th century behind. Once, even globalization sounded good. If the 21st century were a Broadway show, it would be a flop, closed by now. The prelude was the Supreme Court giving George W. Bush the presidency by one vote, 5-4. The spark and carbonation of the Clinton era faded out, replaced by a Texan the media (read: Chris Matthews) decided they’d rather have a beer with than Al Gore. If you believe in foreshadowing as I do, ...

Scandalously stupid immigration system

Over Christmas, Elon Musk and his tech allies started a yeasty intra-MAGA debate over recruiting top immigrant talent to the United States and the role of the so-called H1B visa program. Musk is right that we should want to get exceptionally gifted people into the country, and the immigration hawks are right that the H1B program, which awards temporary visas to skilled immigrants, is scammy and poorly designed. This was a fascinating ideological and factional fight, but it was also over a relatively small-scale program that awards 85,000 visas a year. Left almost entirely ...