February 2024

At a campaign rally on December 16, 2023, Donald Trump made the following statement about the current wave of undocumented immigration at the southern border:

Last semester I took one of my favorite classes at BYU, ECON 461:Economics of Education. A large portion of what we covered in class included analyzing the importance of a college degree and whether a degree actually provides necessary skills that employers wish to see from college graduates. In short, do college grads have higher capabilities? Does the content of the classes they take provide them with abilities and knowledge that those without a college degree don’t have? Or, on the other hand, does that degree rather just signal to employers that college graduates have a certain set of skills because they’re graduates? Even more pressing, do prospective employees even need a degree to obtain those skills that employers seek from potential hires? If I were to answer all of these questions right now, I’d say “it depends” to all of them. The future of university degree attainment is certainly unknown.

With ongoing conflict in Russia and increased turmoil in the Middle East, I’d expect gas prices to be higher than normal. On top of that, Joe Biden’s presidency has been characterized by inflation. Given those facts, I was surprised by the precipitous gas price drop in Utah late last year. When I was in Seattle recently and saw prices over $4.00, I was even more confused. Prices in Utah had fallen to under $3, and currently average $2.72; what made Seattle so different [1]? Responding to my shock, my dad explained the recent enactment of a new gasoline tax in the state. Knowing my hometown, the lack of recoil shouldn’t be surprising; Seattle-ites, being more environmentally-conscious, didn’t really care.

I liked the movie Barbie. I thought it had a good plot with fun characters. What more could one person want? Barbie has been mildly controversial though because of its relationship with feminism. Here I address what I think Barbie does well and what I think Barbie could have done better.

On the first day of my Constitutional Law class, someone asked the professor if she thought there were too many lawyers and if the field was oversaturated. One of her remarks in response to the question struck me. She said that as a rule of thumb, she would just never recommend obtaining a graduate degree where the costs incurred were greater than the earnings would be in the first year in the workforce post graduation. Advice like this seems like solid, standard practice financial advice, but the idea that there are circumstances in which formal education might not be worth the cost turned my mind to higher education broadly, and the debts we occur in its pursuit.

Though federalism hopes to let local governments find individualized solutions to their unique problems, Americans often assume it works like this: Washington D.C. deals with the most prominent political issues, and then the state governments sort out less relevant matters. Yet a look at Utah’s 2024 congressional docket proves that caricature inaccurate. Since the legislative session opened on January 16, a whirlwind of nationally contested issues has played out at the state capitol.

In each State of the Union address that President Biden has given, he has called upon Americans to pay more in taxes. No thanks.

Dear reader,

The 2024 United States presidential election is looking to be a rematch of the 2020 election. As of now, Donald Trump not only won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary by historic margins, but it seems inevitable that he’ll win more states and become the Republican nominee [1]. Although Joe Biden is one of the most unpopular presidents in modern U.S. history, there are no signs of his party looking to replace him at this time [2]. Though 2024 may see like a sequel to 2020, there is one key difference: third party candidates. The increased presence of these candidates gives Americans more options as a majority of voters do not want to see a Trump-Biden rematch, but these third parties are a long shot [3]. However, the circumstances of this election will give these third party candidates influence in American politics that has not been seen in decades.

When Woody, the cowboy from Toy Story 2, is shocked to discover that a television show featuring himself was canceled following a cliffhanger (an all too familiar sensation nowadays), he is met with a curt response. Prospector Pete tells him, “Two words, Sput-nik. Once the astronauts went up, children only wanted to play with space toys”.

On January 13th, 2024, Taiwan elected Lai Ching-te (賴清德), the former Vice President of Taiwan, as President of Taiwan. This election was historic, as it solidified the dominance the DPP, the Democratic Progressive Party, has had over the KMT, the Kuomintang, since 2016 [1]. Even so, Lai Ching-te only won roughly 40% of the vote, with the KMT candidate, Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), winning 33.5% of the vote and the TPP (Taiwan People’s Party) candidate, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), winning a surprising 26.5% of the vote [2].