There is no question that this nation is politically and culturally divided. This has happened before. Several decades ago, there was fierce division over whether Americans should go to war to defend a corrupt South Vietnamese regime from the communists. Those of us who were around during the 1950s recall the division of the country when President Truman sacked the popular General Douglas MacArthur.

The nation got through those divisive periods, and here we are once again. Perennial optimists assure us that we will get through it in fine shape. Others, this scribe included, are not so sure.

Optimists assert that our institutional checks and balances will save us. We skeptics, I would say “realists,” see these checks and balances systematically being chipped away. Our system depends on those checks and balances being exercised — such as a legislative branch curbing a president run amuck, and a court system that remains independent of the other branches of government. 

In spite of this huge cultural gap, there are broad objectives on which people of all persuasion agree. Two such objectives are affordable health care for all, and access to education and training that enables full use of their abilities. Achievement of these two objectives is in the best interests of both the nation, and of individuals.

If these two objectives are in the interests of all, why are they not achieved? There are two reasons; one not valid, and one valid — sort of anyway.

The invalid reason is that “we can’t afford health care and optimal education and training for all.” This is bunk, pure hokum. 

 Let’s review some basic economics. A nation’s wealth includes its natural resources, its human resources, its physical capital, and its institutions. Human resources include the labor force, its broad range of technical and scientific skills, and the stock of knowledge that can be drawn upon for scientific and technical achievement and general human advancement. Its institutions, broadly defined, include a system of economic organization and government. Institutions, more narrowly defined, include those devoted to education and health.

This is not Ph.D. level economics — it is common sense backed up by chapter I of a basic economics text, and, vice versa, textbook economics reinforcing common sense.

The American economy is the world’s largest and richest. It makes absolutely no sense to assert that the largest, richest economy in the world cannot afford to provide health care and treat the sick, and educate its citizens to the extent that enables them to maximize their contribution to society.

To say we “don’t have the money,” is not the same as saying that the nation can’t afford it. The nation has the resources, but they are not being brought to bear on the objectives. Our institutions are not designed to do it.

This brings us to the second reason why these objectives are not achieved, the valid reason — sort of — political failure. It’s valid in the sense that political gridlock and institutional failure explains why these objectives have not been achieved. It is an invalid reason in that sincere political effort and creative institutional design could be brought to bear to achieve these objectives. This nation clearly has the resources, the knowledge, and the health and educational institutions to provide health care and education to all — rich and poor.

This is where we have either politics at its best, “the art of the possible,” or politics at its worst, putting power and individual ambition above the common and reasonable objectives of the entire nation.

Senator Sanders asserts that this nation can afford healthcare for all, certainly a reasonable assertion as other nations less rich than ours are able to do it. But detractors, serving a political agenda of their own, denigrate it as “giving free health care to all — we don’t have the money.” Yes, uninsured people don’t have the money to pay hospital bills. But that is not the same as asserting that the “nation can’t afford to treat its sick.” 

The problem is that the institutions, the system, has not been designed to make affordable health care available to all. 

Broader philosophical and political agendas come into play, such as the assertion that the unfettered market system solves all problems. Clearly, uninsured working poor, even the uninsured affluent, cannot afford even a short hospital stay, let alone chronic illness. Insurance companies do not find it profitable to insure the chronically ill. The conservative recommendation of “health savings accounts” is ludicrous, total farce and disingenuous. 

Designing institutions to make affordable healthcare available to all is obviously extremely difficult, fraught with controversy, easier said than done. The major attempt by the Obama administration was, with the aid of the media, trashed by self-serving politicians putting self and party above a reasonable objective. 

Similar controversy exists regarding education at all levels. The original Land Grant Act of 1865 that placed a public institution in every state with the intent of making college available to ordinary citizens and results of research widely available was an historic achievement. However, even attendance at public institutions is now financially out of reach for many students.

Our system of funding elementary and secondary education puts many school districts in a downward spiral. Districts in economically depressed areas have a shrinking property tax base, making it difficult to pay teachers and purchase educational materials. Yes, these districts are short of money. That is not the same as excusing poor education because “the nation can’t afford to educate its kids.” It can and it must. As the old saw goes, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” 

Failure to provide affordable health care and education to all is not due to an imagined lack of resources. America has the resources. Failure is due to lack of imagination and political will to create the institutional arrangements to make it happen.

— John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Saturdays in the Monroe Times.