There hasn’t been much activity here on the Holistic Politics blog of late, but that’s not because I have been slacking. Two new projects are in the pipeline — or, at least one new project and a major update of an old project.
1. It’s time to update the Enhanced-Precision Political Quiz in 2D. You’ve probably heard of it, as you probably got here via said quiz. I wrote the initial quiz as a Windows app, suitable for deploying cheap computers at political booths. As such, it needed to be short. A web based quiz can be longer, and based on the feedback I’ve gotten over the years, I need to provide more options, especially more viable authoritarian options. Also, the question set solidified rather early, with the last minor update in 2004. The pressing issues of the day have since changed.
To this end I have set up a new blog on quiz2d.com. There, I am setting up blog posts designed to kick off forum-like discussions in the comments. If you want to have some influence in what the next version of the Quiz will be like, drop by the new blog, subscribe to the feed to keep track of topics under discussions.
2. I have launched a brand new web site: National Debt Solutions. Much as I love promoting the grand ideas for a better America, in these dark times it is appropriate to simply ensure the United States as we know it continues. We are plunging into a financial abyss. While we are today the world’s mightiest superpower, we will not retain this status much longer without doing something about the debt. For all the errors of our foreign interventions, I, unlike Ron Paul, am not convinced that the world would be better off without our efforts. What would the world be like if Russia or China rules the waves? What of the future of our children in a post-American world?
So I am going to anger my libertarian friends and call for more taxes — while still calling for less spending. It seems the older I get the more I appreciate H. Ross Perot. The debt is dangerous; that sucking sound is real, albeit toward China; corruption is rampant at the federal level; and we need a better election system. Alas, Perot’s first draft of a political movement didn’t get the job done. Electronic voting and trying to make it even easier to vote was a mistake, as the subsequent implosion of the Reform Party proved. The country should be run by those who care enough to put in some effort. His platform needed some work as well.
I digress. National Debt Solutions is to be a nonpartisan site. I shall appeal to be both liberal, libertarians and conservatives to do something about excessive debt: both public and private. Whether we need a new political party to accomplish this end remains a matter to be discussed here at Holistic Politics.
You might find the first articles of interest. I have a super easy introduction to Austrian business cycle theory using a single potato farm. I also take a rather hard look at the Laffer Curve.