We have been talking about the economics of whims and the economics of needs[2] and we learned to understand that democracy is really not the Bush’s ‘freedom’ to vote in rigged elections.[3] We have also learnt to understand that democracy is nothing else but the progressive intelligent bridging of those two economics philosophies: the never ending satisfaction of greedy whims and the satisfaction of needed needs. We live in a complex world and we are complex individuals with the capacity to feel and reason and think; therefore, we must never give up these natural intelligence(s).

In Canada, we have many politicians and health gurus who want to further privatize health care so that our health care system becomes more efficient. These luminaries contend that we can solve the chronic waiting lines of the system by allowing rich people to pay a premium for immediate health care services; they contend that as a consequence of further health privatization there wouldn’t be waiting lines anymore. This is the same kind of reasoning I was hearing some years ago when corporate Canada was embracing the idea of the American dollarization to fix our supposed problems of lower standard of living and lower productivity.[4][5] I must say that I have been learning in the last some years. If our health care resources are limited, I ask: how can the paying of a premium by rich people fix the health care system? And today we realize that our health care CEOs (profiteers) are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year[6] in our supposed public health care system. Again, I ask: how can the health care profiteers protect our public health care system if these same profiteers want to make more money out of the system? Then, to make things worse, we have our demented pundits who claim that in a multibillion dollar health industry the cumulative multimillion dollar health care executive compensation is a drop in the bucket. Whenever I think of the blackballing management practices of the corporative health care CEOs[7] I come to understand how these CEOs make up the cabal of the chosen people who pay themselves multimillion dollar compensation at the expense of patients, at the expense of health care workers, at the expense of public health care.

Do you remember when the Bush administration was blaming China (and India) for the American trade deficit and the outsourcing of good American jobs? Well, the American dollar has declined some 52% of its value against the Euro in the last two years[8] and I ask: is the culprit of this economic stagnation Europe or China or India when in America the rich get richer, when America has both chronic budgets and trade deficits, when America has no savings, when America has experienced the lowest interest rates in some 50 years? Do we really believe that China is making money out of buying US treasury bills to finance the U.S. deficit?[9] Let me say that the American dollar is going down the toilette because of the corporative greed of the Halliburtons;[10] as a consequence, we will experience economic difficulties[11] followed by a renewal of international multilaterilism, an expanding economic development in China, and a realignment of economics blocks and international currencies.[12]

Bad things are occurring everywhere and in education as well. Canadian Nobel prize winner John Polany argues that universities should not compromise their researches because of the funding influences from the government and industry. Polany writes "we have more than twice the percentage of university research funded by industry as compared with the United States."[13] Also, journalist Janet French writes that the University of Saskatchewan is planning for a 4% increase of tuition fees and that "since 1995, government funding has decreased to 58 per cent from 67 per cent of the university's budget while tuition has gone from covering 22 per cent to 30 per cent of the university's costs."[14] Further, a StarPhoenix editorial has recently commented that the "freeze on tuition is a huge subsidy for the wealthiest and comfortable middle-class families, whose children constitute the biggest cohort of post-secondary students."[15] As compromised researches are concerned let me refer to the fraudulent no fault insurance study conducted by David Cassidy at the University of Saskatchewan.[16] And as entering graduate school at the faculty of commerce of the University of Saskatchewan I may refer to the experience of my son James. James graduated with a Bachelor in Administration from Athabasca University in the Spring of 1999. Since James was interested in joining the Master Program in Professional Accounting at the University of saskatchewan I called the school and I inquired about the processes James needed to go through to eventually enter the program. The first thing I was asked was if James had the finances to go to school since I was told that most graduate students were sponsored by businesses. I responded that James had no corporate sponsor and that he could be using governmental loans. I must guess that the school didn’t like my response and I find puzzling that a school of learning would place more emphases on money rather than on the learning capabilities of their potential students. Anyway, James went on to study for an MBA degree at the University of North Dakota.

The morale of this article is to confirm the increasing dysfunction of our social institutions; therefore, it is up to us as individuals to claim back our own thinking and as a consequence claim back the integrity of our own social institutions.[17]

References

[1] Wikipedia John Dewey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

[2] deSantis, Mario Today's perception of democracy: understanding the economics of whims from the economics of needs October 19, 2004 Ensign, http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2004_900/desantis917/democracy.html

[3] Raimondo, Justin 'Democracy' and Mendacity: From Iraq to the Ukraine, 'democracy' marches on – crushing the popular will November 24, 2004 AntiWar.com, http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4045

[4] deSantis, Mario Dollarization and Terence Corcoran: Wake Up Mr. Corcoran! January 22, 2002 Ensign, http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_500/desantis553/cocoranNdollars.html

[5] deSantis, Mario The Demise of the Loonie and Productivity November 28, 2001 Ensign, http://ensign.ftlcomm.com/desantisArticles/2001_400/desantis491/loonie.html

[6] Gorrie, Peter Do hospital executives make too much?. Debate continues as top salaries rising rapidly. Still only fraction of amount spent on institutions November 20, 2004 Toronto Star

[7] deSantis, Mario The widespread injustice of the LOGIC OF POWER: From the United States to Canada to Saskatchewan November 22, 2004 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2004_900/desantis922/power.html http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2004_900/desantis922/mediationdoc.html

[8] Weller, Christian E The Dollar's Decline in Perspective November 23, 2004 Center for American Progress, http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=256346

[9] Weisbrot, Mark and David Rosnick, and Dean Baker Going Down With the Dollar: The Cost to Developing Countries of a Declining Dollar September 20, 2004 CEPR, http://www.cepr.net/publications/dollar_reserves.htm

[10] HALLIBURTON WATCH http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

[11] Reich, Robert B. Debtor Nation November 24, 2004 TomPaine.com, http://www.tompaine.com/articles/debtor_nation.php

[12] Buttonwood columns The dollar’s demise November 23, 2004 The Economist Global Agenda, http://www.economist.com/agenda/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=3421877

[13] Polany, John C. SCHOLARLY FREEDOM AND THE FUTURE OF OUR UNIVERSITIES Issue #13 November/December 2004 innovationCANADA.ca, http://www.innovationcanada.ca/13/en/articles/universities-future.html

[14] French, Janet Students pan tuition hike November 23, 2004 The StarPhoenix, Page A1

[15] SP Opinions Tuition freeze won’t help poor students November 24, 2004 The StarPhoenix, Page A10

[16] deSantis, Mario The Incredible Abuse of Saskatchewan No-Fault Insurance June 3, 2000 Ensign, http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000/desantis176/nofaultPt4.html

[17] deSantis, Mario The system is not more worth than one person's rights July 27, 2000 Ensign, http://ensign.ftlcomm.com/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis204/system_individual.html