Mental Health Benefits

Once we have secured the defense and general welfare of our nation, i.e. once we have an abundant supply of good jobs and the necessary benefits that must go with a good job to provide the security we need to get a good nights sleep, we need to provide assistance for the less fortunate. I hate to put this on the back burner until we are more secure, but we must prioritize.

With the economic climate as it is today it is difficult or impossible to tell the reasonably afraid from the neurotically afraid. Once we have arrived at the point where we have little or no reason to vote out of fear we can start to help those that are still disabled by it. There are people with obvious physical disabilities that will get immediate attention. I am more concerned with the mental health of those that are still afraid when the majority of our working, productive people are not. As we identify the fearful and get them the help they need to feel secure our country will find its resources greatly enhanced.

With our receding fear will come a reduction of use of sentences that end in an upward inflection.

Consider the difference in the feel of the following sentence, the meaning of which and the personal feeling that goes with it, totally dependent on inflection. Said with an upward inflection at the end of the sentence there is a sense of incredulousness. “Can you believe what they have done?” And then said with a downward inflection at the end there is a sense of wonder and relief. “Can you believe what they have done?” Irony can be replaced with wonder and fear with hope.

So I am proposing at least a five fold increase in our mental health benefits. It is the only way I can see of making the fearful conservatives feel at ease.

We're Number One!

Why do we have to be number one? Why do we have to even be a ‘super power’? Is economic superiority and military might the end all and be all of our existence?

We are 14th in scientific literacy, 9th in adult literacy, 44th in life expectancy for women, 9th in GDP per capita, but we are 1st in military spending and adults prosecuted per capita and prisoners per capita and municipal waste generation. (Per http://www.nationmaster.com/statistics ).

I think it is time we adjust our priorities.

How come Iceland gets to be #1 in net happiness and we are only 13th.