Life, Death, and Autonomy Should your right to autonomy extend to terminating a living being? This fundamental question is the crux that divides tens of millions of Americans. The imminent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization makes abortion more salient in the public sphere than it’s been in recent memory. A necessary question we must all ask ourselves and others is this: What normative ethics inform your policy preferences concerning abortion?

A Good Problem At the time of writing, Minnesota has a $9.253 billion surplus for Fiscal Year 2022-23. This marks the ninth year Minnesota has ran a surplus: This surplus, however, is higher than any Minnesota has had in its history. Why is the surplus over 5.5 times higher than it was last year? Primary Factors Most of this increase came from unexpectedly high tax collections: But where did this come from?

An Unfounded Assertion In 1798, a British scholar wrote an essay—Principle of Population. In it, he asserted that the population grows exponentially while food production grows linearly. His corollary of this assertion was inevitable and perpetual famine, war, and suffering until the population decreases. This scholar was Thomas Malthus. Unfortunately for his academic reputation—and fortunately for everyone else—this assertion turned out to be completely unfounded. 224 years later, the world is wealthier, safer, more educated, and more prosperous than at any point in human history.