Dean Baker was interviewed by Aaron Swartz on a diavlog posted yesterday on BloggingHeads.tv. Baker introduced a number of policy proposals that I'd not heard of before. They (he!) struck me as imaginative, and indeed, inspiring. I'm sure devils could be found in the details in most cases, but the ideas deserve to be heard and explored more fully.
Baker starts off with a proposal for addressing the mortgage crisis called "own-to-rent," which I'm told has generated some buzz. Among the ones that came later that caught my interest the most, though: new ways of allocating funds for scientific research and software development (open source everything!), letting a national health care plan begin by proving its mettle in competition with existing insurance companies, and new approaches for balancing artists' concerns for their livelihood with the out of control parasitism of today's copyright squatters. He's got a liberal's belief in the power of government to do good combined with a libertarian's love for adding competition wherever possible, to promote the things that work the best.
Go watch the diavlog, but don't read my comments in the forums. The fanboy raving is just embarrassing. As if this post isn't going down the same road, I mean.
By the way, this is Swartz's second appearance on BH.tv. I thought I had pitched his first, but unless I've forgotten how do a Google, I guess I didn't. Anyway, in his debut appearance, he gets to be the interviewee, and that's well worth watching, too. Another brilliant guy.
Want more? See Dean Baker's Wikipedia entry, his bio page and links page from his previous job, and his blog, Beat the Press.
See also Aaron Swartz's Wikipedia entry, his personal web site, his day job (watchdog.net), his night job (The Open Library), and his blog, Raw Thought.
Whew. Guess what song just popped into my mind.
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