Charles Schwab allows you to schedule recurring check payments - you just give them the person's name and address, and a check will show up in their mailbox.
Perhaps the point is to identify talent for potential hires? Recruiters (and others trying to hire for their teams) often look to companies who are doing lay-offs as a source of talent that doesn't have to be poached.
I'm not a developer, but after doing (remote) independent consulting for a year, here are my $0.02
-Human interactions: as mentioned, we are social animals and (mostly) enjoy being around others. You might not think this applies to you, but try staring at a computer and not speaking to anyone for a day. It can get old.
-Similarly, being in the expensive cities means you also get to be around smart people like yourself, who are also flocking there. Sure, you could live somewhere super cheap, but then who would you share your v intelligent thoughts with? There's value in being able to bounce ideas, compare notes, etc. with real people in real life.
-I've worked at companies who have employees in other geographies, but they pay these people less than they would in-house developers. If you're good at what you do and have the right connections, it can be lucrative to work remotely - but companies value face-time and might not be willing to pay as much if they know your living expenses are less.
-Motivation: It can be tough to be motivated to get work done if you're living outside the confines of an office. If you can master the remote lifestyle, it offers a ton of flexibility, but a lot of people need more structure in order to be productive.
Working remotely and getting paid the same as you would in an expensive city works for some people, to be sure - and they crush it in terms of $$. But it comes down to a lot more than money - it's a certain personality type that can excel with this type of work, and without the right disposition it's not really worth the extra change.
I'm definitely on the same page - that said, a big determining factor of success is the efficiency of the local gov in question. For example, dig once already exists in San Francisco (http://sfgov.org/dt/dig-once). I've had a conversation with someone who project manages fiber installation across the city, and he mentioned it takes many months for any dig to actually happen, because every potential stakeholder has to sign off before going forward.
Again, am on the same page that dig once makes a lot of sense, but there are some practical roadblocks that could make it less desirable.
I'll comment on putting together a slide presentation - have developed a strategy based on advice from a few different mentors.
One of the best pieces of guidance I've ever received wrt presentations is to tell the audience what you're going to say, tell it to them, then remind them what you've said. Seems repetitive, but done right it can be much more effective.
Once you know what you need to say, grab some blank paper (recycled, of course :) and use one sheet per slide to sketch out what each slide should look like.
I've been told to use a blue background, white text, yellow & red for highlights. I can't say that's been scientifically proven, but I have seen some other awful colors being used - this scheme isn't offensive, at the very least. There should rarely be full sentences on a slide... a few bullet points at most.
Your completed presentation shouldn't mean much to someone who reads it over without hearing your speech - if it does, there is probably too much text on the slides. That said, this means you need to practice... a lot. If you can't read off the slides, you'll need to know what you want to say.
Hard to answer the ideas question without more context, but I'd focus on ideas related to something you are passionate/knowledgeable/curious/have an opinion about. It's so much easier to write a piece of content when you actually care about the topic and have something add to what's already out there.
As for writing, I find it super helpful to have a formula that I can repeat for multiple articles... again, depends on the topics you're writing about. Give yourself timeframes - you'll probably fail to stay within the limits at first, but it can often help to keep you focused.
This article basically says 'great idea but not going to happen here' (see: "They have their principles, and making America Singapore is simply a non-starter.") Seems as if the U.S. has these huge ongoing problems with healthcare but nobody can fix them... including tons of players/$ in health tech. Is the only thing that can effect actual change a huge policy overhaul?