Norman Rowe

Should national sports funding reward participation growth as much as medal results?

Follow the money to its source and the medal-only formula looks indefensible. UK Sport runs on National Lottery and taxpayer funding, which means the cleaner who buys a lottery ticket on Friday is financing the system. She will never be an Olympian. Her kids might play community football. A funding model that directs her money exclusively toward sports that might win medals, while the facilities her family uses crumble, is a transfer from the many to the few dressed up as national pride. Equal weight for participation growth is the least the funders are owed: public money should buy public benefit, measured in the communities that paid for it. Medals are lovely, but they are not a sufficient return on the public's investment. [UK Sport](https://www.uksport.gov.uk/)

Should unrealized capital gains be taxed?

My students learn that everyone pays taxes, and then I read the [ProPublica investigation](https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax) showing the 25 richest Americans paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 3.4% from 2014 to 2018. The trick is simple: never sell. Borrow against your stock, live off the loans, and let the gains compound untaxed until death wipes the slate through stepped-up basis. The White House proposal answers this directly: a 25% minimum tax on households worth more than $100 million, covering unrealized gains, hitting roughly the top 0.01% and raising an estimated $360 billion over a decade. That is not a tax on teachers with a 401(k). It is a tax on a loophole you need nine figures to use.

The Workday lawsuit should scare every employer. If the vendor's model discriminates, the company using it's on the hook. Why take that risk when a human can just read the resume?

Business · Oct 6, 2026 · Should companies be banned from using AI to screen job applications?

The hiring point is underrated. In a tight labor market, Fridays off beats a 5% raise for a lot of candidates, and it costs the company nothing in cash. That is a recruiting edge you cannot buy any other way.

Business · Sep 23, 2026 · Should the standard full-time workweek be cut to four days with no pay cut?

The reentry angle convinced me. We spend billions on programs to reduce recidivism and then withhold one of the cheapest reintegration tools there is: a reason to feel like a citizen. A ballot costs the state almost nothing and tells someone their community still wants them in it.

Politics · Sep 23, 2026 · Should people with felony convictions automatically regain voting rights after s…