Society & everyday decisions
Public life, ethics, work, money and the communities people share.
Should U.S. Cities Make Public Transit Free?
A qualified argument for making transit free for targeted riders and trips while protecting the funding needed for frequent, reliable service.
Politics: Idealism or Reasonable Consensus?
An argument that political leadership should keep ideals as its destination while using reasonable consensus as its ordinary method, with limits for compromises that entrench injustice or undermine democratic principles.
Housing Insecurity and Financial Resilience Are Connected
An explanatory essay on how housing costs can narrow households’ capacity to manage financial shocks, while recognizing differences among households and limits in the evidence.
Should Access to Reliable Transit Be Part of Workforce Policy?
An argument for treating reliable transportation as a workforce concern, with attention to commuting, housing costs, caregiving, rural service, and the limits of transit-only solutions.
An Emergency Expense Reveals More Than a Household's Monthly Income
An explanation of why income and spending alone cannot show whether a household can withstand financial shocks, using the Federal Reserve's 2024 household survey and consumer guidance.
Ethical Standards and Effective Public Leadership: GRE Issue Essay
An evidence-based argument that ethical leadership is essential to durable public trust, while competence and judgment also determine whether officials can govern effectively.
Why a Cheap Rent Can Still Mean an Unaffordable Home
Advertised rent is only one part of housing affordability. A household’s income, utility costs, transportation needs, and access to practical consumer protections all shape what it can afford.
Financial Well-Being Is More Than Having a Job
An evidence-based essay explains how earnings, expenses, stability, and emergency resources combine to shape financial well-being in the United States.
Why Buying Less and Buying Better Are Different Environmental Choices
An explanatory essay distinguishing consumption avoidance from longer product use, using the waste-prevention hierarchy and evidence about household budgets and consumer decisions.
Understanding Society: What Major Cities Reveal—and Miss
An argumentative essay explaining why major cities are powerful but incomplete windows into society, using the Morrill Act and the Second New Deal to show how national policies connect urban and rural life while obscuring some communities and histories.
Housing Affordability in the United States: Why Rent Burden Matters
Rent burden is a useful measure of housing affordability because it shows how much household income goes toward housing. Census Bureau data reveal the scale and unequal distribution of that pressure, while the measure’s limits show why a percentage cannot capture every household’s choices or explain the causes of high costs.
Working from Home in the United States: Benefits and Tradeoffs
An explanatory essay weighing the flexibility and commuting benefits of working from home against the limits of job tasks and unequal access to remote work.