It was during the four terms of Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, (following the “Great Depression” of 1929), that our Nation beneficially, noted and experienced, the existential importance of governmental “Compassionate Capitalism;” contrasted with the approach to the National economy of the prior President, Herbert Hoover’s, “trickle down,” theory. Americans, were thereafter, spared the cruel, unlimited misery and privation, accompanying orthodox, laissez-faire (Natural Law) economics, by Roosevelt’s, novel and empathic programs of governmental assistance. From that era to the present, Americans have been beneficially, afforded such governmental programs of “Compassionate Capitalism” as, social security, death, disability and sick benefits, minimum wage, unemployment benefits, welfare relief, labor protections regarding work conditions and reduced hours, public health and safety regulations, unemployment and health benefits as parts of a veritable, cornucopia, of needed and salutary, citizen entitlements.
Such governmental programs of assistance became regular features of our modernized dynamic of free enterprise economy. Yet it remains frustrating and unsettling, that certain reductionist citizens, (who, thoughtlessly, are themselves, dependent upon, and in happy acceptance of, such Federal and State, generosity) persist in vociferously, indicting all governmental assistance as “socialism,” and, ipso facto, evil. We are truly exhausted with the necessity of constant reminder to such people, that “Socialism,” is a form of government, in which all industry and business, is owned by the Government, (I.e., the “people”); and, relevantly, that there never has existed a National desire for socialism. In fact, programs of compassionate capitalism, considered, from a tactical viewpoint, are the most efficacious way of eliminating any appeal or degree of acceptability, of that theoretical and unworkable, form of government. Nevertheless, it is in frustrated, anticipation, of the persistence of such, reductionist and chronic, misunderstanding of the term, by some uninformed citizens, that prompted us, once more, to attempt to contradistinguish any such uninformed, irrelevant and, totally, inapplicable, perception.
A signature feature of any self-sustaining, secure and strong Nation, undisputedly, is its possession of adequate natural and human resources. We have, noted, the American government’s appropriate appreciation and valuation of its “Natural Resources,” including, oil, coal, natural gas, clean water, lumber, steel and arable soil. It is our present position, however, that, aside from the beneficial, citizen policies, alluded to above, it has, in many respects, not, realistically and tactically, perceived the citizenry, itself, as America’s most significant, and ultimately, determinative resource.
An instructive illustration of such declaration, i.e., that the population of a country, is its salient resource, was, empirically demonstrated by the Germany of the 1930s and 1940s. This, relatively, small European nation, by virtue of the quality and nature of its society, i.e. easily mobilized, literate and informed, came close, to conquering the entire World. This historical example (and others, viz., Ukraine) makes clear, that, even more, consequent than the ready accessibility of natural resources, an efficiently, mobile, and educated, population constitutes the salient resource of a strong and enduring, Nation.
In this context, America needs to cultivate and dedicatedly, curate, the potentially high quality of its citizens, as well as, (perhaps, more crucially, than) its inventory of available, natural resources. An educated, informed, and healthy citizenry is the recipe for a stable and militarily, secure nation.
In keeping with such perception, we are disappointed and concerned with a discernably, insufficient, governmental concern and participation, in the contemporary, inordinately, expensive, areas of higher education and citizen health care; the latter, most notable, in the cost of hospital visits and treatment.
In the context of the existential need for well-educated, and informed, citizens, America is, visibly, hampered by a large and worrisome, cohort of inadequately educated and poorly, informed, (“underbelly”) of useless, Trump sycophants. As a practical matter, there may be little prospect of their renaissance to enlightenment, which sad reality, exponentially, increases the urgent need for sufficient governmental educational assistance, for the remaining, mainstream citizenry of the Nation.
The Federal and State governments, in the existential interest of security, peace and prosperity of our Nation, (and the success of its aspiring students) should legislate policies of meaningful financial assistance to the institutions and the students in the area of higher education. It appears that a great many potentially valuable citizens, find the present cost of higher education prohibitively exorbitant, and consequently, refrain from developing their personal potential, as well as their concomitant development into a valuable, National asset. Adequate financial assistance to students, of higher education and to their institutions of learning, is consequential, in the secure maintenance of a democratic republic, as well as the personal development and advance of its constituent population. We would suggest dramatic reductions in required tuition, the difference made up by governmental subsidy.
A fit condition, as well, is an inarguably, fundamental keystone, of a Nation’s human resources. Thus, it is in the affirmative interest of the continued maintenance of our democratic republic, to promulgate and sustain policies whose effects are protective and promotional, of the good health of this existentially, important resource.
The public has experienced the painful challenge, of the prohibitive and consequential, cost of health care, the most glaring, being the charges to individuals requiring hospital stay. In analogous fashion to our recommendations concerning college tuition assistance, we would suggest the salutary practice of significantly, reducing hospital charges to the financially challenged patient with the deficiency in cost to the hospital, reimbursed, by governmental expenditure. This entitlement, would additionally, eliminate as applicable, the citizen need for expensive premiums for health insurance.
The unique and vital place, in society, enjoyed by institutions of higher learning and hospitals, would seem to differentiate or remove, such societally necessary entities, from the normal context of independent commercial enterprise. Their existential effect on the continued existence of our, often challenged, democratic republic, in our view, makes obligatory the two suggested areas of assistance to the citizen; the latter, inarguably, constituting, America’s most essential resource.
-p.
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