The Inner Monologue

Behind on Reviews, Ahead on Excuses

There is a strange arithmetic creeping into the machinery of government. It isn’t the arithmetic of budgets, deficits, or GDP—it’s the arithmetic of oversight. And the math doesn’t add up. Across agencies, periodic reviews—whether for safety, compliance, or financial accountability—are falling further and further behind. Once-regular inspections now pile up like unopened mail, while agencies…
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Propping Up Dying Fossil Fuels Like It’s 1923

Ah, fossil fuels—the industries that just won’t die, no matter how many times economics, physics, and common sense try to euthanize them. But don’t worry, Uncle Sam has a plan: subsidies forever! Because nothing says “free market” like shoveling taxpayer cash at coal, oil, and gas to keep them on life support while the rest…
Retirement Planning Based on “Average” Lifespan? Enjoy Eating Cat Food at 95

Oh, you’re using average lifespan numbers to plan your retirement? How adorable. Nothing says “I love gambling with my future” like betting your golden years on a statistic that literally means half of people die before that age. But sure, go ahead—bank on keeling over at 85 like some kind of actuarial fairy tale. Meanwhile,…
Why Clinging to Dying Industries Is Totally a Winning Strategy (Said No One Ever)

Oh, bless your heart. You’re still holding out hope for coal mines, rusting factories, and industries that peaked when people thought “Y2K” was the biggest threat to humanity? Adorable. If your economic policy can be summed up as “But this is how we’ve always done it!”, then congratulations—you’re not just stuck in the past, you’re…
The Day America Declared Puberty a Legal Qualification

Lowering the age of majority in the United States to 14 would not be a reform.It would be a confession. A confession that we have finally given up pretending adulthood is about judgment, experience, or responsibility—and have instead decided it is merely about paperwork and vibes. Supporters would call it empowerment. Freedom. Trust in youth.Opponents…
The Silence Is the Message: Why Marijuana Isn’t on TV or Radio

If marijuana dispensaries were illegal everywhere, their absence from television and radio would make sense.If marijuana were fringe, unpopular, or unprofitable, it would also make sense. But marijuana is legal in most U.S. states, supported by voters across party lines, generates tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, and is used openly by tens…
The Best Case for Legalizing Drug Use: How America Ends the Drug War Without Losing Its Mind

America’s drug policy has failed in a very specific, very measurable way. It has not failed because people still use drugs. That was never a realistic benchmark. It has failed because the policy we chose—criminalization, scarcity, punishment—maximized death, disorder, and black-market power while minimizing treatment, stability, and truth. The question is no longer whether the…
Lifestyle Stagnation: The Silent Failure to Convert Money Into a Better Life

We talk endlessly about lifestyle creep—the familiar story where every raise disappears into nicer versions of the same life. Bigger apartment, better car, fancier groceries, still stressed, still tired, still behind. Lifestyle creep is framed as a moral hazard: proof that humans cannot be trusted with surplus. But there is a quieter, less examined inverse…
The Most Cost-Effective Housing Policy in Ohio Isn’t Housing Policy

Every legislative session, the same problem returns under a different name:housing affordability, workforce retention, regional inequality, population stagnation. And every session, the same tools are debated—tax credits, abatements, developer incentives—while the most reliable lever remains underused: Livability. Livability is not a lifestyle preference. It is economic infrastructure.And when the state invests in it deliberately, the…
“Sorry, Teachers—Turns Out You’re Not Actually Starving”

Let’s play a game: Name a profession that loves to complain about pay more than teachers. Go ahead, I’ll wait. For years, we’ve been fed the narrative that teachers are tragically underpaid, surviving on ramen noodles and goodwill while the rest of the economy leaves them behind. But guess what? The latest data suggests that…