America Needs a Transfusion

Commentary

America needs a transfusion. One third of its population, having lost what Alexis de Tocqueville most admired about America—self-responsibility—should be replaced with new blood.

We need people who are entrepreneurial, educated, skilled—qualities that built this great nation.

It’s not a joke (except that “transfusion” could be “infusion”). Already, 71 percent of all Silicon Valley workers are foreign born, according to San Jose Mercury News. Already, American universities are flooded with foreign students speaking English as a second language and outscoring American students on the SAT.

American public schools, which were well regarded in the 1950s and 1960s, today are among the lowest in the world. What happened?

Latching on to Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the United States,” America’s marginalized (in their minds) groups have pressured American schools to focus on their cultures. By itself, that might not have lowered standards, but it has contributed to neglect of teaching the history and culture of British and American democracy.

No other nation in the world does such a thing. In France, for example, by law, schools and employers are forbidden to ask about race, religion, ethnicity, or gender. French schools teach French history and culture—what the nation believes bonds its citizens and instills love of country.

American schools do the opposite. Diminishing the importance of the Founding Fathers, infusing students with critical race theory, American schools send children home confused and even ambivalent about their country.

Working to replace the United States as the world’s military and economic leader, China is laughing at the United States. By destroying our country ourselves, we’re doing China’s job.

We can’t compete with a population four times the size of ours whose citizens and students routinely work 10 to 12 hours a day six days a week and who consider Western civilization (social, political, and economic freedom) inimical to their sense of community. China has that strategic advantage.

But China may be underestimating America. The United States had no intention of entering World War II, yet once the American elephant was awakened and mad, citizens united, and Germany and Japan realized they had made a mistake.

However, to counter China, America does need those new high performers. How will it attract them? By doing the opposite of what China does: by creating social, political, and economic freedom—what the Founding Fathers gave us, freedom from government.

Then, with that infusion of 100 million self-responsible citizens who were attracted by those values, U.S. voters may well reverse the 1933 New Deal, which was freedom with government.

Reverse all legislation since 1933? Yes, except civil rights! Social Security, Medicare, the War on Poverty, the Affordable Care Act—all must go.

Here’s one example. Before Medicare, the price of health insurance was the price of auto insurance (or property insurance or life insurance), about $200 a month ($50 a month for a young person) in 2023 dollars—what it would again be if government were completely removed from the market for health care.

Health insurance at $1,000 to $2,000 a month is not insurance; it’s prepaid health care. Employers write off policies as a business expense; consumers never bargain over prices. Forbidden to purchase health insurance across state lines (in violation of interstate commerce law), citizens in New Jersey cannot purchase health insurance in Pennsylvania at one third the cost. That’s not a market.

With a cost of $1,200 a month, employees think their salary is $14,400 a year higher than it is.  Times 40 years, that’s $576,000 in cash they would have had in their medical savings account. Where is that money? Lost.

Medicare created demand way in excess of what citizens would normally ask, as much as $100,000 for the last six months of life. Normally, citizens would leave that money to their children and grandchildren. Unchecked spending in drugs and surgery has pushed the price of American health care to twice its cost anywhere else in the world.

Are we going to reverse 1933? No, but the United States can still do something: It can create an economic comparative advantage by lowering its tax rate in relation to the rest of the world. That would lower the cost of American goods and services, and the economy would grow.

There would be revenue to reduce the national debt, provided the United States deals with the Achilles’ heel of a dynamic economy: labor shortage, which drives up the cost of all goods and services. That problem is precisely why the United States needs those 100 million workers and why it looks the other way with respect to illegal immigration.

Japan, South Korea, and China have the very same problem. Over the last 20 years, wages of mid-level management in China have tripled, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

In other words, with $31 trillion in national debt and $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities in 2023, if the United States wants to maintain its military and economic position, it must increase revenue. To do that, it must cut taxes and raise education standards.

The U.S. Department of Education states that for the last 50 years only 36 percent of American students have been proficient in reading and math. Are they proficient in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM)? Certainly not. We need that infusion.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.