Understanding Negative Externalities

Negative externalities are costs borne by individuals or society who didn’t choose to incur them. Think of a coal plant: while it generates electricity and economic value, it also creates pollution that affects everyone nearby. The family living next door faces increased health risks and medical expenses—costs they didn’t agree to bear. When their medical bills drive up healthcare premiums for everyone, the negative impact ripples throughout society.

The Government’s Role: Referee of the Economic Game

Imagine the U.S. economy as a sports field, with individuals and organizations as players. In this analogy, the government should serve as the referee, ensuring a level playing field and fair rule enforcement. Currently, our government often falls short of this crucial role, particularly in addressing negative externalities.

The problem? Our system tends to prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability and quality of life. While individual players (businesses and consumers) naturally focus on their immediate interests, the government must consider the broader, long-term implications. Without proper oversight, one player’s actions can compromise the entire game.

The Power of Smart Taxation

The solution is surprisingly straightforward: tax negative externalities at their true cost to society. This means calculating both short and long-term impacts on all stakeholders and incorporating them into the price of goods and services. For instance, if gasoline prices reflected their full environmental and social costs, they would be significantly higher—but this isn’t about punishing consumers.

When we properly price negative externalities, three powerful things happen:

1. Innovation Accelerates: Higher costs for harmful activities drive investment in cleaner alternatives. When polluting becomes expensive, clean technology becomes more competitive.
2. Behavior Changes Naturally: As prices better reflect true costs, individuals and businesses naturally shift toward more sustainable choices—without requiring complex regulations.
3. Market Forces Align with Social Good: By incorporating external costs into prices, we harness the efficiency of markets to solve social problems rather than create them.

Beyond Traditional Economics

Unfortunately, much of today’s economic practice has strayed from these fundamental principles. The gap between textbook economics and real-world application often stems from government failure to fulfill its referee role. But there’s hope: by returning to these core concepts and properly pricing negative externalities, we can create a more sustainable and equitable economy.

Consider climate change: by implementing carbon pricing that reflects the true cost of emissions, we could accelerate the transition to renewable energy while driving innovation in clean technology. Similar approaches could address issues from water pollution to plastic waste.

The Path Forward

Creating a sustainable future doesn’t require abandoning capitalism or free markets. Instead, it demands we use economic principles more effectively. By properly accounting for negative externalities through smart taxation and regulation, we can create a system where:

• Market prices reflect true costs to society
• Innovation focuses on solving rather than creating problems
• Long-term sustainability aligns with short-term profit motives
• Economic growth supports rather than undermines quality of life

The blueprint exists—we just need the political will to implement it. By understanding and applying these fundamental economic principles, we can build an economy that works better for everyone, including future generations.

Conclusion

Economics isn’t just about money or markets—it’s about managing resources efficiently for the benefit of all. When we properly account for negative externalities and empower government to act as an effective referee, we can harness the power of markets to create a more sustainable and prosperous future. The tools are there; it’s time we used them.

Sometimes we really do stumble upon a better system without realizing it. Rather than being silly, the no-fare above ground policy was a brilliant way to encourage usage and make boarding as easy and quick as possible. We should return to a no-fare policy but extend it to the entirety of the MBTA system!

Remove fares without costing the MBTA a penny!

In 2017, the MBTA reported fare revenue totaling $659 million. The census recorded the Mass population as 6,859,819 with 67.4% of the population in the workforce. That comes to about 4,623,518 people. Now, far as I can tell, figuring out the number of taxpayers isn’t an exact science. If you have better sources please do let me know! The range of people who actually have a tax liability seems to range from 25% to 47%. Let’s be extremely conservative and consider that Massachusetts has only one million tax payers.

If we charged everyone in the top million income earners a $659 yearly tax we could replace revenue collected from fares.

For comparison, a year of Linkpass is $1080. Meaning if any of those million people buy a monthly Link Pass year-round they’re now saving money. Commuter rail pass buyers in the top million come out like bandits, saving potentially thousands of dollars.

But we’re ignoring tons of positive impacts from a fare-free system, not just on the bottom line but performance and efficiency system-wide. Not to mention environmental impacts if a fare-free system encourages car drivers to take the T instead.

Most critically, we’re ignoring immediate and long-term cost savings from not paying for the infrastructure and labor needed to collect fairs. Capital costs go down, including no longer needing the nearly billion dollars AFC 2.0 project.

Things we no longer need to pay for without fares:

• Fare machines
• Fare machine maintenance
• Protected exits
• Cash accounting & protection
• Fare enforcement
• Fare machine attendants at tourist heavy stations
• AFC 2.0
• Fuel/energy/time spent waiting for payment on buses/green line

But the biggest savings comes from staff across the entire MBTA no longer need to spend time assisting commuters with broken machines, directing them on how to purchase fares, considering how to implement fair gates at new stations/on new vehicles, no longer needing to account for the impact of fair gates on boarding time and able to focus on the MBTA’s primary goal of moving people across the state as best as physically possible.

Every second and penny spent on collecting fares is a waste of time and money for every tax paying member of the commonwealth.

We now have 2,311,759 taxpayers living in Massachusetts. If we decided to remove fares from the MBTA and replace every penny of fare revenue with a tax, we would need to tax every taxpayer in Massachusetts $285.07 in 2018 in order to equal the revenue generated from fares last year by the MBTA.

In other words, if we taxed every taxpayer in Massachusetts an additional $286 we could stop collecting fares across the entire MBTA without cutting the MBTA budget one penny!

I’m not sure, but am very sure that we can do better. Much better. The MBTA is the lifeblood of the City of Boston and beyond. A core problem is that we have leaders who commute by car and can only guess at the facts on the ground of the T. That is not me. I’ve logged thousands of hours riding the MBTA.

I’ve stood crunched in on rush hour trains, thankful that a train finally arrived that actually had a smidge of space for me to jam into.

I’ve walked home because the T has been decimated by one event or another making walking the only feasible commuting method.

I’ve sat on too many buses and green line trains witnessing pedestrians skyrocketing past us. And I’ve made way too many trips into the center of Boston just to go back out when all I really wanted to do is go across the city.

That is why I’m running for governor of Massachusetts with only one singular campaign platform:

FIX THE MBTA!

The problems with the T are numerous but none of them are unsolvable. All that is required is some hard work and political courage to fix, maintain and improve the system so many of us rely on. I view fixing the MBTA and expanding it as two sides of the same coin. For too long we haven’t extended the T and haven’t invested the funds and resources into ensuring the limited system we already have is run at its peak capacity.

I often hear that non-Bostonians don’t want to fund maintaining the T when they don’t benefit. While I think this argument is short-sighted, in order to truly combat it we must expand the MBTA. Everyone should have access to reliable, cheap and fast public transit. More importantly though, we need to maintain what we already have. We should never have a maintenance backlog and we should clean MBTA stations and trains constantly so that the system doesn’t reach it’s current crumbling state. We have reached an embarrassing state of affairs, with a system on the verge of going up in flames, yet our leaders continue to claim everything is fine. It is not!

The MBTA is broken and we must #FixTheMBTA.

Bus only lanes everywhere

Walk the streets of Boston and you’ll see constant lines of single occupant cars creating parking lots on our streets. It is time we face facts and admit that our streets are not designed to handle the number of cars that make their way into our city every day. We can’t create yet more driving lanes but we can easily, quickly and cheaply make our streets handle more people quicker and more efficiently than they do now.

We’ve had a few pilot programs of bus only lanes and every single one has been a massive success. It is time we stop experimenting and instead implement permanent bus only lanes all across Greater Boston. Bus only lanes can make the commutes of large swaths of residents better instantly. Not only do bus only lanes make existing commutes better they also encourage more people to use public transit and save the city and state massive amounts of money by decreasing congestion and idle time.

Two of these bus only lanes will run in a circle around the city and around Greater Boston to finally bring urban rings to Boston. Eventually my hope would be to have two new subway lines serving the two urban rings but to start true Bus Rapid Transit with dedicated bus lanes would help move people around and across Greater Boston without a trip to downtown first.

Expand the blue, red and orange lines

The blue line should run to Salem, the red line to Brockton and Concord and the orange line to Dedham. There are no reasons these extensions should not already be in place. Day 1 of a Pieniazek administration we will devote resources to implementing a plan to construct these extensions ASAP. We will also have a conference to brainstorm ideas for doubling the number of tracks on all three lines from two tracks to four tracks. A four track blue, red and orange line system would be able to run express trains and have service 24/7, 365 days a year while also allowing for continual maintenance of the system. If we want Boston to be a world class city we need to have a truly world class subway that is extensive, reliable and always running.

Regional rail now

Day 1 of a Pieniazek administration we will begin implementing TransitMatters’ Regional Rail plan. We are lucky to have TransitMatters and even more lucky they’ve come up with a feasible, logical and impressive plan to improve our commuter rail system. We should take advantage of this free research and act on it ASAP.

North South Rail Link

The biggest mistake of the Big Dig was not constructing the north south rail link. Day one in office I would instruct construction to begin as soon as possible on finally linking North and South Stations. The NSRL would expand service capacity and allow for a single seat ride from Washington D.C. to Brunswick, Maine. We can’t fix the mistakes of past governments but we can make sure future Bay Staters have a modern rail system that does not terminate in Boston.

One fare to rule them all

The current MBTA fare schedule is confusing and discourages people from riding the T. We will replace the current convoluted fare schedule with one daily/weekly/monthly fare that will allow for unlimited rides for one day/week/month. Reducing the cost of riding the T will encourage more people to commute by T which we need to do in order to reduce the impact of our state on the climate. Reducing the cost of traveling our state will also increase commerce to all parts of our state. A rising tide lifts all boats and a connected Massachusetts improves quality of life for every Bay Stater.

Abolish front door only loading on the green line

Anyone who thinks the front door only policy is successful has clearly never ridden the green line during rush hour. Limiting boarding to one door makes the green line even slower and makes green line trains expend energy sitting and waiting instead of transporting people. Any loss in fares will be made up for in efficiency and rider sanity. The last day of the current administration will be the last day we punish commuters with the front door only policy.

Close every other station on the B green line

I can and routinely do walk to Kenmore Square from St. Paul Street faster than the green line. There are simply too many stops too close together. Closing every other stop on the B line still leaves a station within a five-ten minute walk from any other station! We should not have a train with stops that are less than a five minute walk apart. It’s simply not efficient for anyone. Halving the number of B green line stations will save costs and improve service for the entire population.

High-speed rail between Boston, Worcester and Springfield

In order to fix the T we not only need to fix and maintain it, we need to make the system clearly the best option for traveling around our state. In 2018, the technology exists to connect Western Mass with Eastern Mass and allow Bay Staters to travel from Boston to Springfield in less than 45 minutes and from Boston to Worcester in under half an hour. Sounds preposterous? Maybe, but we must dream big and try to achieve as much as possible or else our state will fall behind the rest of the modern world. As Kevin Garnett told us, “anything is possible” and a sub 45 minute rail ride between Springfield and Boston is not only possible but absolutely necessary to our state thriving into the future.

And more

There are many more ideas to research and implement. And there are many more issues to attack ( the silver line not being a four track subway for one ) but the above list is a starting point for fixing and improving the T. I welcome any and all suggestions that would either fix, improve or expand the MBTA. We absolutely need to work to make the MBTA the best public transit system in the world.

Why me?

Typically, this is where a candidate would brag about how they are uniquely qualified to do the job. I, however, do not desire being governor of Massachusetts in and of itself. I would love to continue living as a private citizen but, someone has to speak up for us and someone has to lead the way to fixing, maintaining and improving the MBTA. I simply want to live in a Boston where commuting by the T is not only bearable but the fastest and best way to travel. I would gladly support a candidate who ran promising to implement every one of these measures and more but that candidate does not seem to exist. If you do not think I am qualified for the job, please run and I will support you! The more choices we have the better for all of us! Until then I will run and if elected will work as hard as possible to fix the MBTA so that Massachusetts and all of New England can prosper. Please consider supporting me or running for governor yourself! Thank you!

That’s right, just two easy steps!

1. Rename Medicare to Trump
2. Rename Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill to Repeal (Obamacare) & Replace (with Trump)

That’s it everyone! We’re so close!

Confused?

Exactly.

I did say this intersection is the most Boston intersection ever, didn’t I? Standing at the intersection of two different streets that are the same street is so Boston you might as well call the two streets Boston street.

And so it is.

Don’t believe me? Here it is on Google Maps

And the biggest one always on all our minds:

Can we fix this shit?

Now that the Boston 2024 Olympics are definitely not happening and won’t make everything better with magic, I can’t help but think about a few seemingly easy to fix problems.

• MOAR fans

As a near daily user of the wonderful thing that is the green line T platform at Park Street I don’t workout in the morning as just standing at Park Street seems to do the job. I know times are tough and they’re really just a band-aid on shitty ventilation but can we get a couple more fans to at least give us the illusion of air flow?

• Countdown displays outside the stations

Nothing better than walking down into a station, paying your fare and seeing a 20 minute wait time for the next train. Apps help, when they have accurate real-time data. But displays outside the station don’t require a smartphone and can let you decide to just keep walking.

• Express trains

Whatever happened to these? Seemed in my youth commuting to Boston Latin School via the Red Line and Green Line every morning there would be countless express trains. Now I get on one maybe once or twice a year. There’s times and certain paths where a large majority of passengers are traveling beyond the core. For instance the Braintree line during rush hour.

Running express trains would get long distance travelers there quicker and free up space on internal destinations.

And we should ideally rarely have stacking problems but when there’s three separate B line Green line trolleys coming down or going up Commonwealth Avenue for the love of logic send the first one express and allow the second and third to service the other stops!

• All door loading

I don’t care if the T ends up making a net gain on the front door only policy. However, that net gain better include the cost of waiting at each station for indeterminate amounts of time causing varying costs due to loss of heat / AC, customer frustration and all the other negative externalities created by this absurd policy. Green line trolleys have three doors, use them all!

Now, I’m no big city transit engineer but these seem like easy, cheap and quick things to fix. And they would make things that are absolutely miserable experiences now at least bearable. Or maybe they wouldn’t, but I know for sure they’d help the daily T traveller a whole lot more than spending billions on a two week long party for elite athletes and elite elites.

Serves me right…

1. Learning a language

Reading, writing and speaking any new language is difficult, at least to most people. Some of us have the gift of gab and can pick up a new language rather quickly but for the majority of us, becoming fluent in a non-native tongue is difficult. Well, computer programming at its core necessitates learning a new language.

2. Math is hard

I’ve yet to meet someone who thinks math is easy.

3. Cosmic rays

Yes, they’re highly unlikely but as NASA recently showed us, you can do everything right and still face a random error caused by a random cosmic ray flipping your bits.

4. Talking to Computers

While learning a new language is difficult enough on its own, programmers must also learn to communicate with a new entity, the computer! And while we can make do with hand signs and gestures when communicating with someone in a different language, computers have yet to catch up. They’re unforgiving and if you don’t talk to them in a language they can understand they will basically ignore you.

5. Talking to humans

Although coding requires communicating with the computer, at the end of the day we still (knock on wood) live in a world dominated by humans. That means you need to make your code work for the computer and for the human users of the application you’re developing.

6. Math is hard

Did I mention this already? Oh well, it’s worth noting again because math is incredibly complex. Sure we all know that one plus one is three, but there exist a plethora of math problems that our top mathematicians can’t crack. Sure, some of these high level problems don’t really matter but they still show how seemingly never-ending the field can be.

7. Electricity…CRASH

Computers need electrical juice to run, which also means they’re prone to crashes and complete failures. Unless you’re saving your work constantly (which thankfully is now done just as easily as said), you just might lose a ton of work due to a power outage, spike, or any other force outside your control. Even if you’re saving constantly those backups could go haywire at a moments notice.

8. Human Error

We make mistakes. It’s inevitable. And no matter how sophisticated IDEs get and no matter how good we get, little tiny typos and omissions will sneak through leading to frustrating errors. All of you programmers who’ve ever spent hours reviewing your code character by character only to finally find a missing semicolon know what I’m talking about.

9. The Black Hole

There’s limits to what we and computers can currently do. That means there are problems that are simply insolvable at the moment. It could be a lack of computing power or lack of knowledge about human-computer interactions or simply not enough time. Either way, we can code and code and code for hours and days and months and never come close to solving the initial problem. The black hole of modern limitations will eat up your time, energy, and resources and spit nothing out (except maybe to the alternate universe on the other side).

10. The Coding Zone

Athletes love to refer to something called “the zone”. It’s a magical piece of time and space where everything slows down around the athlete and each move is planned a few steps in advance of the opponent. It sounds like malarky but the zone does really exist. I’ve encountered it a few rare times, but it is real. It might be completely in our minds, a combination of extreme concentration and increased spatial recognition but it exists and is extremely helpful.

Well, programmers have to go into the zone constantly. We don’t really have a choice. Personally, if I can’t set aside at least a 4 hour block of time to sit and become ingrained in the lines on my computer screen, my productivity suffers greatly. Sure, I can still get things done but if I can’t immerse myself into the zone, it can easily take multiple sittings and double digit hours to accomplish something I could have easily done in just a couple of hours if I was in the zone.

But, today’s programmers have more distractions than ever. We need to always be on and available, and tools exist to allow just that. It’s becoming tougher and tougher to disconnect from the distractions around you and dive into the coding cave for a solid block of time. But just like you can’t really learn a language until you dive into that country, you can’t really code unless you dive in and immerse yourself in the computer. That cold, isolated stare you may see on someone whose fingers are madly typing away is not a drug overdose, it’s the zone!

*I wrote this post a long, long time ago and haven’t used Coda in 4-5 years but I wrote this post back then so I’m leaving it. I currently use combinations of Vi, Sublime Text, Netbeans and lately Brackets has been a cool new editor.

Disorganized Fun Review

We’ll follow the same format of my review of Ronald’s debut album and go through it song by song ( or I’ll just post it as is because it’s been sitting in my drafts for four years so BAM published.

Disorganized Fun

The title track gets this thing going with energy right off the bat. The signature of a Jenkees beat is it’s ability to make you move. Thirty seconds in and my head was bobbing, my legs were moving, my shoulders shrugging, basically dancing in my seat.

Another signature of Ronald’s music is its dynamic nature. He segues from section to section smoothly while changing up the song’s bits and pieces just enough to keep it fresh throughout the whole track. This song feels like something you’d play when you’re getting ready to head out for the night and need something to get you energized and ready to have some disorganized fun.

A perfect title, perfect beats, and a perfect way to introduce your ears to the latest Jenkees songs.

Score: 6/5

An early version of Disorganized Fun:

Just watch the passion and fun Ronald injects into his music in this video and try not to get infected with that exuberance.

Fifteen Fifty

As Disorganized Fun slows down and fades out, Fifteen Fifty gently swoops in to keep your body moving and your face smiling. Yet another signature effect of RJ’s music is that it has deep layers but can also be categorized as feel-good music. I can’t quite pin-point what it is but every time I start listening to a song Ronald produced it gets me energized.

The scratchy, static-esque bass drops at the beginning of the song set the mood for a harmonious jam. While the title track gets you ready to go out, Fifteen Fifty is the perfect soundtrack en-route to your destination. It’s steady and smooth but has a few heavy bass lines in just the right places that would sound awesome in a heavy-duty system but sound damn good pumping through my sub-$20 six+ year old Sony MDR-V150 Headphones (
.

Guitar Sound

Wow, wow, wow. This synthesized guitar sound is incredible. And I’m not the only one who thinks so!

Over on YouTube, paderes234 sums it up well:

I yelled Wow for 12 times…. I? can’t seem to stop my bones from chillin, Love this :!!

The melody is awesome, the guitar sound is awesome, everything about this song is awesome. Don’t believe me? Give it a whirl below!

An early version of Guitar Sound:

Synth One

An early version of Stay Crunchy:

Inverted Mean

In my review of the debut album, I mentioned that Remix to a Remix was “Begging for a talented hip-hop lyricist, this beat is hot.”

Same line applies here to Inverted Mean. The beefy bass line backing up the majestic piano and occasional cymbal here is redonkulous. The last minute of this song is smoother than silk.

Score: 7/5

Outer Space

I’ll let Ronald introduce this one:

Hello YouTubes! Coming at you today from far out in left field with a new beat that’s kinda weird. I like jamming out to weird stuff, and ya’ll probably know that already!”

Weird and wonderful. Ronald takes us on a journey on this track through never before traveled regions of space and beyond!

An early version of Outer Space:

So, is ‘Old Ashmont’ up for grabs now?