Ideas for America: Let the Sun In 1997-2024

                                                           Chapter Evolution 

When I began writing in October of 1997, it was not clear what the book would become. I started with sentences that made sense. Sentences became paragraphs, paragraphs became pages, and pages became chapters. Those chapters, or essays in the Ideas for America series have evolved for 2.7 decades. Below are the top chapter updates since 2012.

Ideas for America: Let the Sun In

1. Chapter Six: Securing and Maximizing Social Security Whereas Chapter 6 of the 2012 edition of Ideas for America focused on the federal budget as a whole, an article in the Portland Press Herald by Laura Davison Bloomberg on the precarious future of Social Security in 2020 (1) inspired the new chapter focus on Social Security: “Chapter 6: Securing and Maximizing Social Security”. In 2023 the fourteen page chapter  also saw the integration of a piece about the scheduled rise in annual federal interest payments. After studying federal numbers for much of the summer of 2023, including An Update to the Budget Outlook: 2023-2033, by the Congressional Budget Office, it became clear a page or two on these payments was necessary. (2) Massachusetts is an average sized state, so a $1 trillion increase in federal interest payments means about $20 billion per year for Massachusetts.

                                                     A Few Things are Unclear 

a. The effect that an increase in interest rates would have on annual federal interest payments.

b. If, when and how the $20 billion increase in interest payments per average sized state will change the flow of money in Massachusetts.

c. How increased federal interest payments will or will not affect funding of Social Security.

                                     Schedule of Federal Annual Interest Payments

2020 $345 Billion

2025 $775 Billion

2030 $1.165 Trillion

2033 $1.44 Trillion

After That:  See Congressional Budget Office reports (3)

2. Support the Disabled, Support the Economy The 2012 edition of Ideas for America: Let the Sun In profiled successful business models. However, COVID-19 and the subsequent collapse of a few sectors of the Massachusetts economy inspired the transition to a four page chapter that focuses on support of the Massachusetts economy and the disabled in particular. The decision to focus support on the disabled in MA was in part due to having known State Senator Berry as a Senate page. (4) The phrase also expresses the belief that MA people can figure out ways to help the disabled while improving the MA economy as a whole. This website advocates utilizing the 4 page annual reports of the U.S. Small Business Administration to help with that process.

3. Massachusetts Farming The 2012 Ideas for America included a few pages about existing, successful models of farming. However, a multi-media piece – article and video – by Megan Ottolini in the Boston Herald that spoke of 500 dying Massachusetts farms changed that chapter forever. The four page section now profiles challenges MA farms face, and some existing, successful models of support. (5)

Back Cover

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1. L. Davison, “Virus could deplete Social Security Funds by 2030, report says”. October 22, 2020, Portland Press Herald.

2. An Update to the Budget Outlook: 2023-2033, Congressional Budget Office. cbo.gov/publication/59159

3. Ibid.

4. “Longtime State Sen. Fred Berry of Peabody has died”.  November 13, 2018, The Salem News

5. Youtube video: “Massachusetts Farmers Fight to Stay Afloat”, Boston Herald.