Why Church is Better than State

When the churches ran most of the hospitals and half of the schools in the US, the costs for these services was very low compared to the cost of living at the time.  In the 1950s, the cost of a hospital room was $24 per day.  In the 1960s college tuition was $1000 per year.

The advantage of this system was low labor costs and high contribution revenue streams.  We had legions of hospital and school employees who had taken vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.  The Vatican II Council in 1962 heralded the beginning of the end for religious vocations and high contributions. 

By 1964, health became a federal government expense with Medicare.  When churches exited this responsibility and gave it to the government, we should have stopped that from happening. 

This shift was always in the American Communist Party Goals and all it needed was an FDR ‘wannabe’ like LBJ to make it happen.   When LBJ took over in 1964, all hell broke loose for Marxists’ pent-up demand to take over.  We got bad Supreme Court decisions and lots of Socialist legislation pouring out of DC.   It was a gradual shift that started in the 1960s and there is ample evidence JFK tried to stop it. 

I left Monsanto and joined Washington University in 1971 to set up the Personnel function at the Medical School.  I was in the perfect place to meet the promoters of the government take-over and ask them why they thought this was a good idea.  They were placing their bet on expensive equipment and treatments to eradicate cancer and other lethal maladies for healthcare and federal government money for schools. 

They were wrong.  Federal funds infusions caused healthcare and school costs to rise at 4 times the cost of living for the past 50 years.  Most of these funds were spent on new buildings and grounds and things that didn’t work or made things worse.

I attended excellent private Catholic schools in well-maintained, 100 year-old buildings and didn’t mind it a bit. My grade school was Parish-based and was free and funded by donations.  My high school was Christian Brothers

College Military and tuition was $500 per year.  My college was St. Louis University, a Jesuit college and tuition was $1000 per year.  College entrance exam scores peaked with my class in 1961.

Healthcare and education need to be weaned away from federal funds and reengineered to cut costs.  The best education is self-education.  The best healthcare is self-care.  The best insurance is self-insurance.  It will require local control and the repeal of all regulations.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader