2021 Crandall Challenge
Citation Winners
David Nevins, WG’70
State College, PA
Co-founded the Bridge Alliance in 2014 of which I am now the chairman of the board. The Bridge Alliance has had remarkable growth and is now an alliance of over 100 organizations all working to create the healthy self-governance that is promised in our founding documents and so badly needed in our country. The work of the Bridge Alliance the last 5 years is now recognized and referenced as a critical component and coalition….a cross-partisan constituency of 11+ million Americans who are dedicated to renewing our democracy.
Malcolm Bund, WG’74
San Deigo, CA
My private equity group bought Precision Alternator and Starter. Thereafter I started a private/public sector non-profit to provide transportation to the needy, Vehicles for Change (VFC). VFC has been a home run. Today, 22 years after inception in 1998, we have provided over 8000 vehicles to the needy, who have achieved 30% higher wages as a result of having their own transportation. In addition VFC trains released prisoners to become auto mechanics through training and ASE certification. Since 2015 VFC has placed 150 mechanics in gainful employment with several graduates earning six figures. Key Advisor to Kitchens for Good (KFG), which trains ex-cons to work in the food service industry. Trainees take donated commodities and prepare meals donated to the homeless and the disadvantaged.
Challenge Honor Roll
Mark Cummings, WG’70
Atheron, CA
Mark is a current and longtime advocate and supporter of organizations raising the alarm about the need for more cybersecurity. He is a founding member of CTO, and a board member: Bace Cybersecurity Institute (BCI). BCI is dedicated to education, public policy, R&D, etc. to address this problem.
In another initiative, Mark have been a co-organizer of an initiative focused on meeting the existential planet wide problems we face including global warming, pandemics, food scarcity, water scarcity, and nuclear weapons. This initiative is conducted under the title of “Death or Utopia”. A video of the initial webinar that kicked it off is available on You Tube.
Christian Varin, WG’68
Vordere, Switzerland
Nedland Williams, WG’76
Marblehead, MA
Proposed in a broad brush, big picture way a revamp of the U.S. tax code.
Wrote and published a 2010 book, Fixing Everything, on Amazon. This dealt with many of the issues plaguing the federal government and proposed solutions.
Proposed a new tax code. We currently waste 7.6 billion man-hours on federal tax compliance. A new code could reduce that to 2 billion, or 2% additional growth to the economy. The core idea would be a flat tax combined with a UBI. Companies would be the tax collectors, while the UBI would add progressivism and could be distributed separately.
The UBI would cost $2.5 trillion (citizens would receive the Federal Poverty Level). This could be paid for with tax expenditures [$1.6 trillion] and some safety-net [$0.9 trillion of $2.0 trillion]. The safety-net reductions would be dollar-for-dollar exchange. Since the UBI would not be means-tested, there would be less disincentive to work. Better economics decisions would be made. With the above in place, we could fix Social Security, annual federal spending, reduce crime, fix our healthcare system, and several others.