Spending S0 Much To Get So Very Little

I recently came across a short, older article from The Week (www.theweek.com) magazine, dated January 23, 2009. The article quoted information from the Baltimore Sun which stated that the United States spends twice the percentage of its gross domestic product, 16%, than just about every other developed country in the world for health care. Similarly, the U.S. spending on higher education is also double most other nations, again as measured as a percentage of GDP.

Given the grossly higher expenditures, one would expect that we have the finest health care and the best education system in the world. Apparently, we are not spending our dollars wisely. Everybody is pretty convinced that we have a broken and costly health care delivery system in this country despite the high expenditures. Unfortunately, Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the rest of the political class gang want to spend even more money (trillions more) without solving the core reasons why the current delivery process is broken.

Public education in this country is no better despite the high amount of money spent on it. According to the recent poll by the Program For International Student Assessment, United States' students finished with a less than average score for science literacy vs. fifty seven other countries score and trailed the scores of 22 other countries. In mathematics, the U.S. finished below the average and trailed thirty one other countries. Some of these countries that score higher included Estonia, Slovenia and Macau. Let's face it, these number are embarrassing given how much we spend to attain them.

"Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would address these two steps directly through Steps 27 and 28. We can no longer wait for the political class to solve these problems. They have proven conclusively they cannot despite trillions of dollars and decades to get it right.