1.  Amnesty

It sounds insane, of course — the last president to do this was Ronald Reagan 40 years ago and we all know how that turned out.  (Actually, it turned out fine.  Murders and rapes did not spike; pets were not eaten.)

Yet think about it.  The border is now secure.  We should keep it that way.  And continue to pursue and imprison or deport criminals as we always have.*  But for the millions eager to harvest our crops, process our meat, care for our elderly, build our new homes — and pay taxes — amnesty would (a) strengthen our economy; (b) strengthen Social Security;  (c) temper inflation; (d) save tens of billions a year on mass deportation; (e) show us to be the decent people most of us have always been, doing our best to see our fellow humans as humans rather than as vermin, garbage, and scum.

There could be all sorts of safeguards to address amnesty’s downsides.  But wouldn’t the upsides outweigh them?

You’ve seen Ronald Reagan’s final speech (4 minutes). 

It can never be watched too often.

2. De Minimis

Just as we’ve stopped minting pennies — because, well, really? — so should the de minimis doctrine be widely adopted throughout government and business.  It would make the economy more efficient, dumb annoyances less frequent.

I got an UNCLAIMED PROPERTY NOTICE recently that must have cost a buck or two to print-and-mail.  It contained instructions and a form to fill out for claiming cash I was due (!) lest it escheat to the state of State of New York as unclaimed property.   The “token ID#” assigned to my case was 6300-0340-2502-1546.  I needed only to confirm my identity and submit the form through the “OWNER REDEMTPION PORTAL (recommended)” or else via email or regular mail, after which, if everything proved to be in order, a check would be reissued to replace the one I had not bothered to cash.  (For 23 cents.)

What if the payor’s computer had been programmed not to issue checks under (say) $3?  With a law requiring any entity choosing to apply this de minimis standard to lump all such payments into a single quarterly payment to the state so there’d be no incentive to cheat anyone; just an incentive to save on minutia.

Remember the Seinfeld where Jerry got all those 12-cent checks?

Have you heard the kind of wonderful story about Trump’s 13-cent check?

Back when I employed a half-day-a-week housekeeper, the paperwork required to comply with the New York State unemployment tax — which I would gladly have paid — was the same as if I had 500 full-time employees.  At stake was something like $36 a year.  Couldn’t there have been an automatic charge you could elect to accept rather spend hours determining whether the proper amount would actually have been $28.73 or $35.19 or $49.02?  There was a quarterly $1,000 penalty for not filing that paperwork!

Should every state and federal and corporate and legal form have some sort of “de minimis” waiver, appropriate to the situation?

3.  Upgrade To Paid

The wonderful bloggers I gratefully read all want me to “upgrade to paid” for $7.99 a month.

That’s more than the cost of a digital subscription to The Atlantic or The New Yorker with dozens of great writers!

But that’s okay; I can afford $7.99 a month.

If there’s a wonderful blogger working full time who can attract 3,000 paying subscribers — $24,000 a month — hey, more power to her.

But what about the bloggers who have a hundred thousand or a million unpaid subscribers, of whom I’m one, each asking us to upgrade to paid?  If we all did — and of course only a tiny percentage do — they’d be raking in $800,000 or $8 million a month.  And, yes, some of them have researchers and editors to pay, but still.

I feel guilty when I don’t upgrade, if they actually need my money; dumb when I do upgrade, if they don’t.

Thus my idea:

What if along with each request to upgrade, an asterisk led to a statement like this:

<< I pledge that after my subscription income from this site net of expenses (which may include assistants) reaches $200,000 a year, 30% of the excess will be contributed to the kinds non-profits that advance our progressive aims . . . above $400,000, 50% of the excess . . . and that as it becomes clear net revenue will exceed $1,000,000, I will begin lowering your subscription price automatically.  (If half my unpaid subscribers upgraded, I could charge you $15 a year instead of $$96!) >>

Each blogger would set his or her own criteria and formula and phrase it his or her own way — or skip this altogether.

I just know that in my case, it would make me much more likely to upgrade, increasing their revenue . . . and feel better about the upgrades I’m already paying for.

I doubt I’m alone.

4. Open Primaries and Ranked Choice Voting

I couldn’t fail to plug this yet again.  Combined with making it easy to vote in primaries — mailing all registered voters a primary ballot — it would de-polarize our politics and break the legislative gridlock.  Moderates and centrists could get elected and work with each other to solve the nation’s formidable challenges.

Join us today at 3pm Eastern on Indivisible’s weekly call.

We really are going to win.

PARENTHETICALLY

(Pam Bondi dodges questions about the Epstein files by noting that the Dow is over 50,000.  So pedophilia is okay when the market is high?  Really?  MAGA’s okay with that?)

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*Obama was known as “the deporter in chief.”  Biden fought for bipartisan comprehensive reform that would have solved the problem — humanely — had Trump not killed it, keeping the border open an extra year so he could use it to get re-elected, stay out of jail, and make billions of dollars.