One of the degrees I have been fortunate to get is in the field of Accounting. The rules in accounting allow me to distill data down to the basics – sometimes lol…
The accounting equation simplified is:
Assets (A) = Liabilities (L) + Equity (E)
or interchangeably,
E = A – L.
Given Equity (E) belongs to you (what you own), then everything else exists as either an asset or a liability. Keep this in mind.
As a trained accountant (don’t hold it against me, and please leave my former Accounting/business school professors alone ), it is easy for me to picture a country as a “balance sheet.” And I can view the balance sheet of a nation in simple terms: either as an asset or a liability.
So, any entity in the nation’s balance sheet can be itemized as an asset or liability. (Please indulge me and let’s keep this simple without getting into complicated issues lol. regardless of production, human life is an asset not simply in terms of quantifying value…the simple smile of a child and altruism are arguably assets to humanity but again, keeping this simple.)
Consequently, the citizens may be assets or liabilities on this simplified balance sheet. Ideally, you want your asset to appreciate and not depreciate in value.
More intelligence means, better problem solving, creativity, even a better appreciation of edifying human qualities, such as empathy or appreciation of beauty…and of course more intelligence can lead to greater production, wealth creation…with more wealth, society can care better for the needy, thus we have a reinforcement of human values, and not a vitiation of humane qualities.
So, investment goes into education, which goes into intelligence, which goes into production, which goes into wealth creation, consequently, jobs…jobs…jobs…entrepreneurial jobs…
Invest in the higher education of your citizens, and they blossom, as intelligent problem solvers and innovators – either as employees or employers.
They create jobs and careers of the future that prosper the nation and unify our globe.
Invest in their health and disease won’t become liabilities that prematurely cripple our people. Even old age is an asset to humanity, because through many years of experience, the elderly become a repository of good assets: their accumulation of wisdom is a treasure trove to be transferred to future generations.
Take away your citizens’ access to higher education and universal healthcare (and free is not a pejorative for the poor; it is an investment in the less privileged who will deliver on this sensible act of mercy or empathy), and then you create liabilities of your citizens.
Citizens that become liabilities, because their state is clueless about empowering them to build a strong and more tenable nation, are a powder keg waiting to deflagrate and explode.
Examples of powder kegs? Peasants in France. The explosion? Storming of the Bastille in 1789, and attack on the higher estates in the categorization of the “Ancien Regime.” The explosion resulted in the massacre of the nobility and the French monarch and his family.
Another example of a powder keg? Russian serfs or peasants. Explosion? The peasant revolt which enabled the first Bolshevik revolution that brought “Marxists” into power under an intelligentsia that knew a storm was brewing in Tsarist Russia. Marxists were disdained in the West for a long time, because of the Bolsheviks’ brutal execution of the Russian royal family, who were descendants of Queen Victoria of England. And you know some people in America hate Marxists lol…Unfortunately, many aren’t good students of history, if they at all know their history lol
Free education and a viable healthcare system do not curtail free market systems…they propel them into stability!
