Last week the Arizona Board of Regents came to Yuma to address a crisis that is growing not only in Arizona but around the country.  The very well defined presentation outlined the low high school graduation rates in the United States and how significant a higher education is to individuals in their economic growth. 

 

State Farm Insurance and many other businesses fund awareness programs to help others understand the current education crisis in America and encourage individuals to seek higher education.  A more highly educated society does help improve the economic well-being of the individual and therefore the nation. 

 

However, the crisis in education is not the only crisis that exists in the United States.  There is also a crisis in health care, drug addiction, poverty, and foreign relations, not to mention the current fiscal and monetary crisis. 

 

The one common denominator, the one common thread that permeates all of these crises is increased government funding with its rules and regulations.  Between 1789 and 1849 the federal government spent a total of a little over a billion dollars.  By 1930 the federal government spent more than 3 times that much in just one year.  Today, the federal government of the United States spends about $7 ½ billion in just one day or $5 million every minute. 

 

In 1950 government spending at all levels was about 23 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and 27 percent of all personal income.  Today those percentages are now around 31 and 40 percent, respectively. 

 

The bottom line is that the increased amount of government expenditures has not solved any of the crises America is faced with today.  As a matter fact Americans face more crises today that they did seventy or even fifty years ago.  There is a correlation to the amount of government involvement in the lives of individuals and the quantity and severity of the crises being faced today. 

 

Government was never designed to solve individual problems or situations.  The founders of the United States understood this and it is the reason they restricted government to only those activities where it could possibly be beneficial for government to get involve in the lives of individuals. 

 

The crisis in education and all of the other crises are real, especially the monetary and fiscal crisis all governments and individuals are facing.  The history of increased government spending reflects that that route does not and will not solve these crises. 

 

Individuals who are involved in any of these crises personally can and will solve them.  However, they must have the necessary resources.  Individuals must be able to keep all they earn so as to be able to have the means to solve these crises.  Paying more taxes to government entities does not leave much in the way of resources for individuals to solve their own situations.

 

The United States was founded on the principles of self-reliance, frugality, entrepreneurialism, risk-taking, individualism, personal and family responsibility, limited government, and free markets.  These are the attributes that made Americans who they are and what the United States has become.  The success of the United States as a whole has not been as a result of dependency, entitlements, debt, bureaucracy, collectivism, nannyism, statism, and mercantilism. 

 

In order for any of the current crises Americans face today to be truly challenged with a reasonable chance of success will require a change in attitude to return to those attributes that made the United States a great nation.  Only then will government become smaller, individual liberty and success prevail, and the crises in America and around the world be reduced or eliminated.

 

Give yourself an opportunity to earn a $1,000 scholarship and learn these principles of liberty.  Register for The Freedom Library scholarship class that begins February 5 at www.freedomlibrary.org.