Columnist George Will is coming to Lakeside tomorrow, and I’m moderating a Q&A session with him during 7th period. Here are questions I’ve culled, mostly from students, a few from teachers and others (including yours truly). Should be fun!

  • Are you a libertarian?
  • What are your thoughts on Social Security and the issues around it? Do you think the government needs to completely scrap the system?
  • You seem to have issues with the government’s handling of health care. Could you expand on these issues and suggest an alternative method for addressing the health-care problem?
  • In terms of health insurance, how would you address the issue of adverse selection and do you think the current health plan proposal will address this issue?
  • You have opposed the stimulus packages by Presidents Bush and Obama. What do you think is the best way to right the economy?
  • Should the “Big Three” automakers have been allowed to fail? If so, what would you say to those out of a job due to the collapse of these companies?
  • What is your opinion on getting rid of overly powerful unions, like the one that made Boeing lose billions of dollars?
  • Do you think the financial system is under-regulated or over-regulated or ???
  • Do you think American corporations have the best interests of the American people at heart, and if not is there a role for government to protect those interests?
  • Under what circumstances do you think individual self-interest leads to good social outcomes?
  • What do you think about recycling?
  • Do you agree: “This is my long-run forecast in brief: The material conditions of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries, most of the time, indefinitely. Within a century or two, all nations and most of humanity will be at or above today’s Western living standards.” (Julian Simon 1997)
  • Will you please write another column about carbon taxes?
  • Do you agree: “[M]y guess is that global warming will simply be another transient concern, barely worthy of consideration ten years from now…” (Julian Simon 1996)
  • Do you think that carbon taxes will reduce our greenhouse emissions or will it just raise the price of goods that use such gases?
  • You’ve written that “America needs a national commission… to assess the evidence about climate change.” But there already was one: in 2001 the National Academy of Sciences said that the IPCC report from earlier that year “accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue.” Given that the IPCC’s 2007 report expressed even more confidence, wouldn’t another commission be a waste of time and money?
  • What do you think is the future of the Republican party?
  • Do you have any advice for us as we turn into adults?
  • What is your favorite part of journalism?
  • Why are you against the death penalty?