This page was last updated on September 27, 2012.
Time to extend school years; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; September 27, 2012.
An editor’s note for a previous letter asserted, “The writer is a 1948 graduate of Geneva College.”
Mr. Hum has written more than 64 letters since mid-2004, including a 10-month hiatus from September 2007 to July 2008. Nearly three years after George W. Bush left office, most of Mr. Hum’s letters still are no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.
Mr. Hum frequently includes “fellow Republicans” or something similar in his letters and is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, George Reese, and Oren M. Spiegler) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.
Given his body of work, for a while I wondered what Mr. Hum would use for subject matter now that Barack Obama is President. Mr. Hum wrote three letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly (here, here, and here), then he reverted to his Bush-bashing habit, as in “Bush earns status as ‘most liberal.’” I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome. The last Hum letter I critiqued was entitled “Commit to health care.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“We need to change our public education system from K-12 to K-14 or K-16.
“When I was a little boy 80 years ago, two of my mother’s seven brothers lived in town. They had quit school after eighth grade to go to work. They had married, raised a family and done OK. Eight grades compared well with today’s 12 grades.”
[RWC] Based on his letter-writing body of work, Mr. Hum committed a faux pas by telling us his uncles “quit school after eighth grade to go to work [and] married, raised a family and done OK.” In the time period to which Mr. Hum refers, there were no government programs like the ones he tells us we can’t survive without. Oops.
I have a similar story. At least three of my four grandparents (including both grandfathers) didn’t attend or graduate from high school or trade schools. They raised their families in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before social programs. Both households were single-income and neither of my grandfathers worked at “skilled” labor or high-paying jobs. Despite that, they eventually managed to own their homes and saw to it all their children either went to college (Carnegie Tech) or trade school (Grace Martin Secretarial School), even during the Great Depression. They also managed to prepare adequately for retirement.
“But eventually employers began asking for high school diplomas. After World War II, some of us went to college on the G.I. Bill. Now it is 2012, and many jobs require K-14 or K-16.
“Universal public eduation [sic] K-16 would have advantages such as better discipline. If you study hard and don’t disrupt classes, you can get 16 years and not owe thousands of dollars in student loans, and some poor smart kid might find a cure for cancer.”
[RWC] “better discipline?” As usual, Mr. Hum is reaching. “poor smart kid[s]” get scholarships all the time.
“We would have to pay for it with property, income and sales taxes. But we might save in lower prison costs.”
[RWC] Based on a previous letter, Mr. Hum is at least 85 years old. At the risk of entering “insensitive” territory, here’s why Mr. Hum’s age is relevant. Mr. Hum’s proposal would likely have little financial impact on him. That’s because for the average U.S. male of 85, the CDC reports a life expectancy of about 5.7 years.
“And remember fellow Republicans, our guy Romney went to Israel and saw their universal health care system, which costs only 8 percent of gross domestic product compared to our U.S. cost of 18 percent. Mitt Romney put Obama, I mean Israeli, care into Massachusetts. If he can put that into this whole country, we will save enough to pay for K-16 and balance the budget. Fellow Republicans, better days are ahead.”
[RWC] As noted above, Mr. Hum wrote at least four letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly, aka Obamacare.
Mr. Hum may be referring to a Washington Post blog entry entitled “Romney praises health care in Israel, where research says ‘strong government influence’ has driven down costs.” Mr. Hum neglected to mention a few things. First, “Health insurance does not, however, cover every medical service. Dental and vision care, for example, fall outside of the standard government set of benefits. The majority of Israelis—81 percent —purchase a supplemental health insurance plan to ‘use the private health care system for services that may not be available in through the public system.’” If Israel’s “universal health care system” is so great, why do 81% of Israelis feel the need to “purchase a supplemental health insurance plan …?” Second, Israel’s program uses price controls and price controls don’t work over the long term. Finally, according to one of the sources for the piece, “It is unclear whether this success in health expenditure control can be sustained because of growing signs of strain within the system, the rapid increase in nongovernment financing for health care services, and the growing prosperity of Israeli society.”
Leave it to Mr. Hum to claim adding government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly and free college for everyone “might save in lower prison costs” and would “balance the budget.”
Please read my paper entitled “Healthcare.”
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.