The entire backstory of Daylight Saving Time reads a bit like a soap opera. No, seriously… it’s fantastically filled with drama, deceit and special interests. Check it out! The Popular Mythology When I was growing up, I was told Daylight...
Being Sage About Minimum Wage
Apparently, many Target workers who won a $15 minimum wage from their employer back in September 2017 now receive fewer hours and reduced benefits from the company. As a result, many of them now see lower overall earnings than they...
Of Acid Wash Jeans and Democracy
I roll my eyes every time I hear an American politician extol the virtues of our Democracy. We are very specifically not a Democracy; we are a Republic. But politicians fully understand the popularity of things that are, wait for...
Maybe Hate Has Some Home Here?
When I think of the most iconic and effective modern reformers, I think of Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Each of them accomplished something incredibly unlikely by challenging an entrenched status quo and making the change stick. They...
Pitching Tents in Milwaukee
Unintended Consequences Strike Again... The space under the freeway near downtown Milwaukee has typically been home to a few makeshift shelters lived in by homeless people. A while back, tents suddenly replaced those shelters. It created one of those sights...
Open Bars, Healthcare, and Education
Watching the Democrats campaign for their presidential nomination, I keep thinking – perhaps oddly – about open bars and the Law of Demand. While the candidates aren’t talking about giving away drinks (which makes this Wisconsin boy sad), most of...
Addressing the Elephant in the Oval Room
I usually work really hard to avoid discussing individual politicians. The conversations are typically over before they begin, bogged down by closed minds and pre-existing assumptions. But discussing Donald Trump is such a national obsession that ignoring him is more...