Category: Public Policy
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Payday loans exist for a reason
Payday loans are easy to condemn, but the demand they fill is real. Here’s what they actually solve, what they break, and why banning them often backfires.
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Employer-sponsored health insurance is the original sin of US healthcare
Tying health coverage to employment was a wartime accident that became permanent. It distorts the labor market, the insurance market, and patient outcomes.
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The Jersey Girls and the fight that produced the 9/11 Commission
Four widows from New Jersey forced a reluctant administration and Congress to create the 9/11 Commission. Here’s how their pressure campaign actually worked.
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Pharmacy benefit managers are the most corrupt link in healthcare
PBMs sit invisibly between drugmakers, insurers, and pharmacies. Their structure produces predictable harm to patients and pharmacies, and almost no public scrutiny.
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Child support enforcement criminalizes poverty
Child support enforcement in the US punishes inability to pay almost as harshly as refusal to pay. The result is a system that deepens the poverty it claims to address.
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Usage-based auto insurance penalizes essential workers
Pay-as-you-drive insurance is sold as fairer pricing, but the risk scoring quietly punishes the night-shift commutes essential workers can’t avoid.
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Test-optional admissions made elite schools whiter and richer
Test-optional policies were sold as equity wins, but the data shows elite admissions tilted further toward wealthy applicants who could game the new criteria.
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Student loan forgiveness debates ignore the graduate-degree problem
The student debt crisis is overwhelmingly a graduate-school crisis. Forgiveness debates that ignore that fact end up subsidizing the wrong borrowers.
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Audits target the poor more than the rich, and the IRS knows it
Low-income filers face higher audit rates than millionaires. The reason isn’t fraud frequency — it’s that auditing the rich is harder and slower.