Opinions from Yale University's alumni
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Paul Krugman, Economist (nobel laureate) and NY Times columnist
disagrees
Tariffs
Trump’s tariffs are badly designed even from the point of view of someone who shares his crude mercantilist view of trade. In fact, the structure of his tariffs so far is designed to inflict maximum damage on the U.S. economy, for minimal gain.
Joseph Lieberman, Politician from the united states
disagrees
Euthanasia
Doctors should do everything they can to reduce pain, but not to administer drugs to end life, I think we go over a line then.
Bill Clinton,
disagrees
Electronic voting
Until we get this [electronic voting] straightened out, every state should go to some sort of paper ballot system.
Harris Miller, American politician
agrees
Electronic voting
The machines performed beautifully ... Instead of theories about catastrophes, the simple reality is that the machines produce accurate results and the voters love them.
William F. Buckley Jr., American conservative commentator
agrees
Legalise recreational drugs
The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense - the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy.
Ron Rivest, Cryptographer
disagrees
Electronic voting
We have learned the hard way that almost any computer system can be broken into by a sufficiently determined, skillful, and persistent adversary. There is nothing special about voting systems that magically provides protection against attack...
Voting system software may be maliciously designed, may contain bugs, or may be changed or replaced at some point during the pre-election roll-out of eq...
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Joel Mokyr,
I don’t see an easy way of solving it [mass unemployment]. It’s an inevitable consequence of technological progress.
Cyrus Vance Jr., New York County District Attorney
disagrees
Encryption is a human right
The United States Constitution provides that local law enforcement agents may obtain access to places where criminals hide evidence – including their homes, car trunks, storage facilities, computers, and digital networks – so long as the agents have a search warrant issued by a judge. Carved into the bedrock of the Fourth Amendment is a balance between the privacy rights of individuals and the pub...
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Paul Krugman, Economist (nobel laureate) and NY Times columnist
agrees
Carbon Tax
Emissions taxes are the Economics 101 solution to pollution problems; every economist I know would start cheering wildly if Congress voted in a clean, across-the-board carbon tax.
Eric Ries, Author of The Lean Startup
agrees
Basic Income
Even an extremely modest universal basic income could pay huge dividends
John Kerry, American politician, former United States Secretary of State and former senator from Massachusetts
agrees
Cryptocurrencies
People are investing in it, it’s serious amounts of money and it’s got value so it’s going to be talked about.
Ash Carter, Former US Secretary of Defense, former Harvard University professor
We must ensure that everyone who’s able and willing to serve has the full and equal opportunity to do so, and we must treat all our people with the dignity and respect they deserve. Regulations regarding transgender service members [i.e. banning open transgender individuals from the US army] are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions
Hillary Clinton, US presidential candidate
We can’t fall into the trap set up by the gun lobby that says if you cannot stop every shooting you shouldn’t try to stop any
Dr. Peter J. Hotez, Dean-National School of Tropical Medicine; Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development
agrees
Vaccines
I’m a vaccine scientist. I’m also the father of an adult daughter with autism. Not only is there an abundance of evidence showing that vaccines are safe, there’s not even any plausibility of an association [with autism]
Ellen Clayton, MD, JD, Professor of Pediatrics and Law at Vanderbilt Law School
agrees
Vaccines
The MMR vaccine does not cause autism… The MMR and DTaP do not cause Type 1 diabetes. And the killed flu vaccine does not cause Bell’s palsy, and it does not trigger episodes of asthma.
Jonathan Rauch, Senior fellow @BrookingsGS & @BrookingsInst. Contributing editor @TheAtlantic and @nationaljournal.
agrees
Carbon Tax
Just as conveniently, the most efficient way to get started is also the simplest, albeit not the easiest politically: tax carbon emissions.
WiIlliam Nordhaus, Professor of economics at Yale University
agrees
Carbon Tax
Actually from an economic point of view, it's a pretty simple problem
Art Laffer, American economist who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board
agrees
Carbon Tax
A carbon tax would attach the national security and environmental costs to carbon-based fuels like oil, causing the market to recognize the price of these negative externalities.
Robert Reich, American political economist
agrees
Carbon Tax
The single most important thing we can do -- the single solution -- is to put a price on carbon.
Richard Posner,
agrees
Carbon Tax
Stiff taxes will put pressure on the energy industry to achieve technological breakthroughs (such as sequestration of carbon dioxide) that will greatly reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Richard D. Wolff, Marxian economist. Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
disagrees
Basic Income
UBI creates a new difference between those people who work and earn a living and those people who, for wathever reason, don't work but still earn a living. This is going to create two classes of people (...) and for me the big issue is why do that?. I like the idea of community building by not having people that are extremely wealthy or extremely poor, but I don't like this way of doing it, becau...
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Ro Khanna, Candidate for Congress in Silicon Valley
agrees
Basic Income
At a time when machines are replacing low- and middle-income workers, we want there to be an incentive to get people to a basic income.
Willem Buiter, Citi's Chief Economist
agrees
Basic Income
Use the tax-transfer mechanism (e.g. through a guaranteed minimum income for all, or an ambitious negative income tax, public funding of health care and long-term care etc.) to support those left behind by technological advances.
Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor
agrees
Basic Income
A minimal guarantee with regard to income, it seems to me as almost inevitable in terms the direction that the structural changes of our economy are taking us in.
Andrew Lam, Assistant professor of ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine, and writer
There’s ample evidence that Asian-Americans are at a disadvantage in college admissions. This issue has divided Asians and others who debate the relative benefits of diversity versus meritocracy in our society. But if Asians are being held back, it’s not so much because of affirmative action but because of preference for whites.
WiIlliam Nordhaus, Professor of economics at Yale University
And the children get nothing? The basic idea is sound but too simplistic as stated.
Hillary Clinton, US presidential candidate
We talk about drought-resistant seeds, and I’ve promoted them all over Africa. By definition, they have been engineered to be drought-resistant, I mean that’s the beauty of them. Maybe somebody can get their harvest done and not starve, and maybe there’s some left over to sell.
Bill Clinton,
disagrees
Brexit
It’s Northern Ireland that will really get whacked if Britain withdrew from the European Union.
Jim Rogers, Co-Founder, the Quantum Fund
disagrees
Brexit
If the UK left the European Union, London's dominance of foreign exchange including euro trading would gradually decline and then end as the flows moved to Asia and other European capitals.
John Kerry, American politician, former United States Secretary of State and former senator from Massachusetts
disagrees
Brexit
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