Fitz File

Reparations.  Even saying the word brings up strong feelings to both those who support and oppose the idea.  I have always thought reparations were a good idea in the United States for two reasons.  First, we are somewhat unique in the world of racial justice for our concerted effort to claim “there is no racial problem” or “maybe there was, but it’s over now”.  Second, we have the ability to make amends, so why wouldn’t we?  When discussing this idea, it is important to understand what reparations are, what they are meant to do, and what the actual proposal is.           Reparations are a catch-all term that is applied to government action to “make up” for past wrongs.  Similarly to general tort procedures in court, the remedy is designed to make the victim whole.  This could take the form of many different things, money, special treatment in some situation, an apology.  What is most important is the...

     Perhaps an addition to a previous post, The Application, Not the Idea, this post is a reflection on the shortcomings of privatization. There can be no doubt that for some systems in our society, privatization can be good and productive. Yet others are clearly best served by remaining in public hands. Systems that are unnecessarily privatized can lead to disasters and backlogs like we have all witnessed in Texas over the past week.      Both our country and the world have been well served with privatization. While it is debatable whether advancements would have ever come, had R&D remained in public hands, the current history is clear. Privatization has allowed for enormous advancements in public health, technology, industrialization, and market efficiencies. The very act of privatization incentivizes technological advancements, decreases in pricing to benefit the consumer, or a mix of the two. This results in more widespread prosperity, growth, jobs...

          As we come to the end of the Trump Presidency one way or another, we are still setting records as a country for Corona Virus deaths and hospitalizations. There is awesome power within any government, but given the nature of the disaster and the steps we have seen work against it, any competent government would take the following steps.  A Pause on Public Activity      The only thing that matters is stopping the virus. Growing the economy, educating our children, addressing racial issues, all are meaningless if we cannot resume normality. This starts with doing everything we can to hold or slow the spread of the virus. I am under no illusions that a second “shut down” would be both politically costly and economically expensive. But if we are going to solve the problem of the pandemic, we can’t just rely on one side of the equation to solve the entire problem. Currently, we are vaccinating people at a far slower rate...

          While clickbait articles are a terrible scourge and must be destroyed for the good of mankind, they sometimes do offer a valuable look into the zeitgeist. I am sure most have heard news reports or seen headlines espousing some other market millennials have ruined. It has slowly evolved over the past few years to further encompass a disdain for capitalism in general. The flaws of the articles, lack of understanding of economics, and seemingly willful ignorance of inflation and wage stagnation aside, I do not agree the younger generations have a disdain for capitalism. But rather, it is the application of capitalistic principles to various markets and services that we do not agree with.           I often begin my arguments with a test, to understand whether or not a person actually believes what they say, or simply has not thought of a better way to explain their idea. My first question here is “do you have a pr...

               All 50 states require car owners to purchase and maintain insurance for their vehicle. Why would they do this? It doesn't make any sense, most people don't get into car accidents, most people don't ever use their car insurance. So why would a state require a car owner to purchase insurance? Because it's in their best interest to do so. A large portion of what governments do for their people is protect them from their own worst impulses. think about Social Security, it's something that people have to pay into that they can cash later when they are older. This was in response to millions of people losing their savings during the Great Depression. This is what governments do, they protect people. More specifically, this is what adults do, they hope for the best and plan for the worst, they make prudent decisions to make the best of any situation. This is what sets Donald Trump apart from adults.       ...

For some reason, opening schools has now become similar to the gun debate. Accepting that some parts of the process are completely out of our control, when they are. For the sake of argument, let’s accept that we have to open schools for the more than  50 million students  in the US primary education system. What can the government do on Monday, July 20th, 2020, to ensure students will be properly protected? There are two basic parts to this solution, the lead-up to the school year, and the school year itself. The federal government has a responsibility to institute as close to a knock-out punch to the virus as possible, and coordinated and well-financed assistance over the school year. It is essentially impossible to eliminate the virus from the United States by the time schools open in mid- to late-August. The virus is spread too widely, and there is a large enough portion of the US that does not care, to eliminate it in such a short period. However, the majority of people w...

     Most of us have seen the video  of a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. In even the most extreme circumstances, which this wasn’t, the police’s actions seem careless, cruel, and just wrong. Although there is some debate over what exactly killed George Floyd , the reason necessarily what is important? There has been quiet points made, on both the left and the right of the political spectrum that the numbers and facts do not quite match up to the narrative being pushed by the protests or the Black Lives Matter movement. For example, the police have killed around 1000 people each year for the past several years according to both the Washington Post , and Mapping Police Violence . I will always admit that these are the deaths we know about. However, I am not willing to engage in conspiracy theories and will only add at most 10% to any total before it gets ridiculous. Another fact is that police killings of black people was at a seven-year low in 201...