SAXTONS RIVER- As concerned as I am, along with many citizens, with our enormous national debt, I would like to point out that its growth in the past decade is a direct result of President Trump lowering taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, and not, as is sometimes claimed, of the American public's demands for a "nanny" culture that addresses social needs with expensive services.
Not only is the United States the world's only developed democracy that lacks any far-reaching, national support for individuals' basic needs, but the 2024 World Happiness Report ranks us significantly behind countries with free universal health care, adequate housing, access to free or low-cost higher education, adequate infrastructure maintenance, more humane penal codes, and smaller defense budgets.
Such broad services are expensive, of course, but our position as the world's wealthiest large country readily lends itself to relieving the hardships of medical debt, inadequate housing, unsafe streets, and inadequate preschool childcare, among other sources of our national unhappiness, while diminishing the obscene wealth gap our culture fosters.
It might even make some billionaires feel proud to contribute to the national welfare, and consequently make them happier people!
Helen Neswald
Saxtons River
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