Welcome to my blog.
These are my personal thoughts, from policy to philosophy to travel, and everything in between. I use this as an archive of the articles, research papers, and other items I’ve written over the years.
Contact me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemackie/
Blog Posts from Over the Years
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Biases and Flaws in Occupational Licensing: A Barrier to Economic Mobility
For the last 10 years, my focus in academic studies, community involvement, and professional pursuits has centered on increasing access to economic opportunity. Affordable education programs, like those I developed… Read more ⇢
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SF’s Other Epidemic
As a society we’ve proven our ability to mobilize relatively effective measures to control/reduce Covid-19 deaths; we need to use the same level of urgency and public health investment to… Read more ⇢
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The Case for Youth Stimulus
(or, “the angst created by too much time debating politics with my parents”) Read more ⇢
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The Remarkable Utility of John Rawls
An overview of Rawls’ work and why its simplicity offers a powerful yet simple way to analyze the most critical questions we face today. Read more ⇢
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Is this the hour of reckoning for contingent labor?
Defining what it means to be a contingent worker – its benefits and risks – and why it’s time for the government to reevaluate how we think about employment altogether. Read more ⇢
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The Predictable Pandemic
I recently re-discovered a letter I wrote to Kamala Harris in July of 2018 regarding the Trump administration’s failure to proactively prepare for an epidemic. I share this letter not… Read more ⇢
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My Path to Coursera
In fall of 2019, as I filled out my applications to Business School, one question on the Fuqua application caught me by surprise: “Life is full of uncertainties, and plans… Read more ⇢
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Addressing Housing & Retail in NOPA
As part of my work with the NOPA Neighborhood association, I recently launched our first ever land use committee. We announced the committee publicly in the May edition of the… Read more ⇢
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Supervisor Brown on Housing, Homeless, and Clean Streets
[Published in the November / December edition of NOPNA News] Vallie Brown is no stranger to NOPA. Prior to being appointed by Mayor London Breed as the new District 5… Read more ⇢
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Vision Zero – Pedestrian Safety Update
Safety by the Numbers Update (This article appeared will appear in NOPNA’s Feb/March Edition) The San Francisco Chronicle recently declared 2017 the safest year for traffic fatalities in the city’s… Read more ⇢
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Sonoma Academy – Alumni Advancement
I’m excited to update everyone on a recent project of mine – the Taylor Mountain Alumni Association! I was approached earlier this year by Seav Banus – an alum of… Read more ⇢
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Santa Rosa Fire Update
Thanks to the hard work of the Bennett Valley Fire Department and the numerous other first responders who provided mutual aid, I am thrilled to say that our house was… Read more ⇢
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Sonoma Academy Opening Convocation Speech
Background: Clare and I were recently asked to give the opening convocation speech at my high school. It was an exciting event, not only because the speech occurred roughly 12… Read more ⇢
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Safety – By the Numbers
(This article appeared appeared in NOPNA’s June / July Edition which can be located here) On busy nights, Divisidero, Masonic, and other NOPA streets are filled to the brim with… Read more ⇢
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Conclusions from Colorado
I recently spent two weeks volunteering for the Hillary campaign in Colorado. I spent the majority of my time knocking on doors (canvassing) in the 6th congressional district on behalf… Read more ⇢
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[Senior Thesis] Just Housing: An Examination of Inequality in John Rawls’ Theory of Justice as Fairness
Date of Submission: April 2015 Readers: Alex Rajczi, Andrew Schroeder Department: Philosophy and Public Affairs Abstract How would a housing system work in a just society? How do we account for differences… Read more ⇢
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A Defense and Criticism of Daniels’ Just Health
Executive Summary Debates about the Affordable Care Act are usually related to the technicalities of its implementation, petty politics, and occasionally, more fundamental claims about the role of government. This… Read more ⇢
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Entrepreneurship & the Liberal Arts
There is an ongoing tension that exists between the tenets of higher education and the key principles of entrepreneurship. Our role at CIE, as a research institute, is not to… Read more ⇢
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Summer 2014
The weekly flights can be exhausting. The delays, the sitting, the need to remove my shoes. Sometimes when I sit down on my flight I pass out within a couple… Read more ⇢
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The Case for ASCMC Senate Committees
(This post appeared in the CMC Forum on February 24, 2014) Last night’s debate in Executive Board about student fees raised numerous questions regarding the way in which ASCMC is… Read more ⇢
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Finding my Voice Again
There were four stages of my departure from India: the first, when I said goodbye to my friends in Jaipur, the second, when my parents arrived for Christmas (thus ending… Read more ⇢
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The Trains of Mumbai
Wow! What a journey its been since I last updated the blog. I found that, inevitably, almost every study abroad goes through a stretch where they deny their blog- and… Read more ⇢
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To Mumbai…
I couldn’t have asked for a better last weekend in Jaipur. After hearing about Diwali for the last two months the date finally came and it didn’t disappoint. The city… Read more ⇢
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In Support of Breaks
A version of this article was featured in my school paper, the CMC Forum: http://cmcforum.com/life/11132013-letters-to-home-take-a-break My girlfriend says that when we go hiking together she can’t stand the number of breaks… Read more ⇢
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Musings
Here are some musings I’ve made over the last few months… This reads sort of like a diary entry. I’ll probably come back and amend and add to this list,… Read more ⇢
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Varanasi
When I was in 8th grade my family decided to visit my brother in India. He, like I am now, was spending three months studying at an American program in… Read more ⇢
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A Day in the Life of a Chai Addict
*I wrote this post before departing on a recent excursion to North India. A summary of my time there will be posted this weekend! My mother brought up the… Read more ⇢
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An Interview to Remember
Recently, as part of my Field Methods and Ethics class, I was tasked with conducting three separate interviews (one in Hindi) of Indians outside of both my program and my… Read more ⇢
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On the Internet:
When my father travelled the world as a part of the International Honors Program, I can’t imagine he spent as much time perusing twitter or the NY Times or really… Read more ⇢
Julian Mackie's Personal Site 