President Trump’s Infrastructure Repair – Utah has 141 Golf Courses and

125 medical school seats.

Golf Tam, gold and black. Trump.

President Trump has announced his plan to rebuild rural America allocating $50 billion, a quarter of all Federal funds in the plan, to empower rural America to address the infrastructure needs of its communities. Like the Poor, we’ll always have sorry roads and bridges in need of repair, What else is there? Infrastructure needs must include the repair of a century of neglect of medical school seats, besides roads and bridges.   Did you know that there are fewer medical schools in America now than before World War One?  Utah hasn’t opened a new school in over a century.  While the population has tripled.   Did you know this nation has seven hundred and fifty thousand (750,000) physicians, a quarter of which were trained overseas and that half of those from overseas are from India and Pakistan? The country has over two million lawyers. Did you know the U.S. Veterans Administration has been unable to fill the physician slots in Saint George Utah for a year now? They just aren’t available. How many new physicians does Utah need now, about 5,000, or 50 years graduation at present rates. Did you know that the U.S. barely graduates more physicians each year than it has golf courses?

Utah regularly graduates four times the number of new lawyers as it does physicians. Utah has 141 golf courses to choose from, and has 125 seats for medical schools students each year. More golf courses than med students? How’s that workin’ for you Utah?   Can’t staff the VA in Saint George? How about other clinics?

How did this happen? Read all about it.

The Flexner Report’s Stranglehold on Health Care

Then Congressman Ron Paul (Texas 14th and 22nd Districts – 1976-2013, Captain US Air Force 1963-1968), and physician, recently gave a speech on the House floor covering the topic of health care. In it he brought up the Flexner Report, an item that few individuals have even heard about that is worthy of much more attention than it currently receives.

A lot of problems were created in 20th century as a consequence the Flexner Report (1910), which was financed by the Carnegie Foundation and strongly supported by the AMA. Many medical schools were closed and the number of doctors was drastically reduced.  The motivation was to close down medical schools that catered to women, minorities, and especially homeopathy. We continue to suffer from these changes, which were designed to protect physicians’ income” — Ron Paul; September 24, 2009 MORE GOVERNMENT WON’T HELP — (House of Representatives – September 23, 2009) [Page: H9873]

The seeds of the Flexner Report were planted in 1908 when the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching commissioned Abraham Flexner, a high school principle, to research and report on medical schools in the U.S. Flexner himself was not involved in the medical industry, but after being asked to take on the report he researched and grew fond of the medical systems in England, France, and Germany.

In the report, which was officially published in 1910, Flexner called homeopathic schools “a striking demonstration of the incompatibility of science and dogma.” What’s curious is that Flexner points out that between 1900 and 1909 homeopathic schools decreased from 22 to 15 and students within the schools decreased from 1,909 to 1,009. Flexner uses these figures to conclude that “the rise of legal standard must inevitably affect homeopathic practitioners.” In short, even with the marketplace whittling out the unproductive and unsustainable homeopathic colleges (or any colleges, for that matter) that Flexner clearly did not appreciate, he still advocated increased government intervention to further clear out homeopathic schools.

Flexner believed the problems in medicine were primarily because there were too many doctors and medical colleges. “The country needs fewer and better doctors; and…the way to get them better is to produce fewer.” The flaws of Flexner’s arguments and his general report is that he may indeed have made some noticeable observations, but he did not consider the economic consequences of increased government intervention, a centralized medical system in the hands of the American Medical Association (AMA), and the impact of fewer doctors and medical schools.

Basic economic common sense tells us that when you forcibly remove one product without subsequently lowering demand, you will increase the price of that product. Less supply without less demand means higher prices. The homeopathic schools that Flexner so strongly criticized may have lacked in some areas of educational standards compared to more traditional health schools, but they provided a key element of competition for allopathic medicine and an essential choice for individuals who needed health care.

Basic economics also tells us that weak products and services are bound to fail to the competition due to inefficiency and poor judgment. As I previously mentioned, Flexner’s own research displayed that homeopathic schools were struggling to stay open and maintain steady attendance. Their services had difficulty competing in some cases, and those schools (or services) disappeared or were in the process of failing.

The publishing of the Flexner Report in 1910 led to many educational reforms. Among Flexner’s final proposals included extending years spent in health education (two years in undergraduate collegiate studies and four years in medical school), increasing the caliber of medical schools to universities, expanding government involvement in medicine, decreasing total graduates to 3,500 from 4,500, and bringing the total amount of medical schools in the U.S. from 150 to roughly 31. In short, Flexner proposed a medical system driven not by the free market and individuals, but a manipulated system molded by some of the wealthiest men and foundations in the world. In fact, the Rockefeller Foundation donated large sums of money to schools who followed the model recommended by the Flexner Report.

One of the unfortunate impacts the Flexner Report had on medical education was the shut-down of many schools geared toward disadvantaged rural areas, African-Americans, and women. Because of mandated school time regulated by the AMA and state governments, only those wealthy enough to afford at least six years of college had a chance at becoming a licensed doctor. This essentially limited the market for prospective doctors to wealthy white males. (All but two African-American medical colleges were closed.)

The flaw with the Flexner Report is the same flaw that has brought us to today’s broken medical system. When a product is forcefully limited to be provided by a certain central group (in this case the AMA), it will reduce choice and competition. Choice and competition in a free marketplace are what drive businesses to become more efficient and productive, which provides the greatest possible benefits to individuals who are able to freely buy and sell in the market. A strong, sustainable system built for individuals cannot come from a manipulative central source, it must come from the demands and choices of the people whom it is intended to help.

Feb 13 2018 The White House listed these facts –

‘’Here are the facts:

  • One out of every five miles of highway pavement in the United States is in poor condition.
  • More than 50,000 American bridges are rated as “structurally deficient.”
  • Commute times have increased every year since 2009—and more than 40 percent of urban interstate miles are congested.
  • Nearly 40 percent of Americans living in rural areas lack sufficient broadband access.
  • Lengthy reviews hold up infrastructure projects for years.
  • The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that failing to meet our infrastructure needs will cost us$4 trillion in GDP and 2.5 million jobs by 2025.’’

Add this one

`                 Open Medical schools to add 40,000 more seats a year, which will create 350,000 jobs. That is about 2 and a half medical school seats for each of this countries 15,372 golf courses.