Reason Alert: Infrastructure, Vaccine Passports, Derek Chauvin Trial, and NFTs

Reason Alert Friday, April 2, 2021     Friday Funnies Student-athletes go to the Final Four. By Mike Thompson Joe Biden's $2 Trillion 'Infrastructure' Plan Doubles Down on Everything That Makes American Infrastructure Insanely Expensive  The president's speech outlining his American Jobs Plan was rich in ambition, but light on details.   By Christian Britschgi  Instead of Tax Increases, President Biden Should Cut Spending and Use Public-Private Partnerships  Infrastructure projects that are paid for by users, not by federal taxes, can be a big boost to the economy.  By Adrian Moore  Return the Highway Trust Fund to its Original Users-Pay/Users-Benefit Principle Virtually all of the shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund is due to Congress spending money on non-highway programs.  By Robert Poole  Biden's Infrastructure Plan Would Overturn 'Right-To-Work' Laws in 27 States  The president called for the passage of the PRO Act, a grab bag of policies that labor unions have been pushing Congress to pass for years.   By Eric Boehm  More Census Data Shows Government Tax Revenue Hasn’t Been Negatively Impacted By COVID-19  The Census Bureau estimates 2020 aggregate state and local tax revenues of $1.62 trillion, or about 2 percent above the 2019 total of $1.59 trillion.  By Marc Joffe Ronald Bailey: COVID-19 Should Be Our Last Pandemic  Technological breakthroughs mean we'll never again have to suffer with disasters like the novel coronavirus—if politicians will get out of the way.  By Nick Gillespie  The Accelerating Rollout of COVID-19 Vaccines Makes Domestic 'Immunity Passports' Largely Irrelevant  Vaccine hesitancy will decline as more family, friends, and neighbors get vaccinated.   By Ronald Bailey  Get Ready To Show Your Vaccine Passport  Health passports will become just another bureaucratic hurdle for people trying to go about their lives.  By J.D. Tuccille Derek Chauvin's Belief That George Floyd Was Intoxicated Does Not Help His Case  If drugs played a role in Floyd's death, the prone restraint only compounded that danger.   By Jacob Sullum Derek Chauvin Argues That His Use of Force Was Appropriate and Did Not Kill George Floyd  The defense will have a hard time showing that Chauvin's conduct was justified by any threat Floyd posed.   By Jacob Sullum Legislators Override Kentucky Governor's Veto of School Choice Bill  Kentucky is now the 28th state with some form of school choice.   By Eric Boehm  Pension Reform Trends: Pensions Take Money From California Classrooms, Florida's Rising Debt, and More  Plus: New solvency analysis of Montana and Texas pension systems, fresh thinking for retirement plan design, and more.  By Alix Ollivier  Are NFTs Dumb, a Scam, or Secretly Useful?  Non-fungible tokens for art can seem a lot like Tulipmania. But distinct digital tokens have real use cases for things like online address management.   By Andrea O’Sullivan  The U.S.- China Relationship Doesn't Have To Be 'Increasingly Adversarial'  Many U.S. complaints about China aren’t about actions that threaten U.S. security.   By Bonnie Kristian   If this email has been forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe to Reason's email newsletters, please go here. Donate Reason Foundation 5737 Mesmer Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90230, USA Privacy Policy   Manage Your Preferences Unsubscribe - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -