thinkorthogonal

Is there an accurate first order calculation that can describe the impact of increasing/cutting government outlays on jobs? I've always used a very basic assumption (mostly for mathematical ease) to assess the impact at $100k of spending per job...as a result, my best estimate for assessing the impact of balancing the budget through spending cuts alone would cost our country ~15M jobs (assuming our deficit is $1.5T)...how accurate/inaccurate would you characterize this analysis?

If DARPA gave you the opportunity to fund one EXPERIMENT (price tag not an issue), what would it be and why?

Dinosaurs attained tremendous sizes compared to today's land animals...what allowed them to do that and prevents it from happening to today's animals?

If you could pick ONE public policy/program that you could implement in our country without having to fight politically to do it, what would it be?

If any of you were offered a spot on a multi-year Mars exploration trip, would you go? What would be the longest timeframe you would be willing to go for?