Through the Eyes of a Young American
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Through the Eyes of a Young American

A Teenager's Perspective on Government, Politics and Solving Our Country's Biggest Problems

Jett James Pruitt

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eBook - ePub

Through the Eyes of a Young American

A Teenager's Perspective on Government, Politics and Solving Our Country's Biggest Problems

Jett James Pruitt

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About This Book

Called one of the "Best Books of 2020" by Books On Politics, and "The most important book to read this year" by Rev. Dr. C. William Mercer, THROUGH THE EYES OF A YOUNG AMERICAN is a groundbreaking treatise that carves a new path between Democrat and Republican ideologies, and offers fresh ideas and concrete plans to move forward as a nation.

"Among the ranks of Greta Thunberg and the students of Parkland High School, Jett James Pruitt is a powerful force in the movement of young people shaping our country's future. His rare voice of progressive conservatism is a refreshing change from the far-left radical ideology of his generation, and bridges the gap between conservative values and economic equality the majority of Americans have long been waiting for."- BooksOnPolitics.com

"Jett James Pruitt claims the title of Gen Z's most powerful political strategist." -Yahoo Finance

"Pruitt's ability to address so many complex topics within 200 pages is attributed to his sharp, elegant, and effortless writing style, and perhaps the driving reason why his publisher nominated THROUGH THE EYES OF A YOUNG AMERICAN for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize."- Benzinga

Born in 2005, Jett James Pruitt is an award-winning speaker, author, journalist, political strategist, and founder/editor-in-chief of the political news website, TheGenZPost.com.

Raised by a single Hispanic/Native American mother on the Upper East Side in New York City, Jett was diagnosed with "moderate to severe autism" at the age of two and was completely non-verbal until the age of four. After numerous early-intervention programs and holistic treatments, Jett shocked the medical community with his recovery and formally lost his Autism diagnosis by the age of six.

Jett's unique interest in politics began at the age of nine, blossoming with the 2016 presidential election. At the age of 14, he founded the political news website The Gen Z Post and became one of the U.S. Press Association's youngest members in history.

His first book, THROUGH THE EYES OF A YOUNG AMERICAN, is a powerful commentary on today's political landscape, and offers ways to resolve our nation's biggest challenges with health care, taxation, social security, trade, tariffs, protectionism, automation, climate change, education, debt forgiveness, wealth inequality, labor, welfare, wages, military spending, border security, universal basic income, capitalism, entrepreneurship, abortion, gun violence, child sex trafficking, racism, and the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.

THROUGH THE EYES OF A YOUNG AMERICAN was written while Jett was only fourteen-years-old, and has been nominated by the publisher for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize.

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CHAPTER 1
Healthcare
If I were to describe my entire political belief system in a single phrase, I would declare that I am “pro-human from conception to grave.” I am strongly in favor of preserving life at all stages of development: from conception to birth, from childhood to adulthood, and from old age to death. I believe it is the role of government to ensure that every citizen is afforded a chance to obtain the great economic opportunities that exist within our society, which includes providing every American with affordable healthcare.
Healthcare is one of the most heated political issues in the United States. What many do not realize is that a solid healthcare system is key for keeping peace within our society, as well as the preservation of individual health. Imagine how quickly our government would shatter if a second black plague infected the majority of our citizens? Hospitals would shut down. Martial law would have to be enacted. Our social contract would be voided. Therefore, an affordable, effective, and accessible system built to encourage the prevention of illness benefits society as a whole, not just an individual and their loved ones.
Many people on the left side of the political spectrum believe healthcare is an essential government service and feel that all American citizens should be guaranteed access to affordable treatments. They argue the United States should implement a single-payer healthcare system, which is when the costs of medical services are funded by a single money pool of taxpayer dollars. This would cover every resident via one single payer system, much like the current system for military veterans who are covered one hundred percent by the VA hospital system.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Healthcare Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2017, About 28.5 million people in our country go without health insurance, which equates to 8.8 percent of the population of the United States being uninsured. And according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Health at a Glance in 2017: OECD Indicators, the United States was one of only six countries out of the 36 members of the group that has not implemented a universal health care system.
As a teenager, not only do I vehemently support the idea of a universal right to health care for all American citizens, it’s also very hard for me to understand why we did not implement a single-payer system years ago, particularly during the recovery following The Great Depression.
It is easy for anyone to point out that as a young man who has never had a job, or the need to pay taxes or medical bills, that a proper understanding of the complex economic issues behind healthcare may evade me. Still, it is hard to comprehend how the most prosperous nation in the world was outdone by countries like Australia, Canada, England, Spain, Italy, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Norway, and Portugal, who somehow all figured out how to pay for universal healthcare, while we still have not.
Our government’s duty to provide guaranteed quality healthcare is second only to its duty to provide national security. It is undoubtedly the most important social service any government can provide. Moreover, I have studied the economics behind various single-payer proposals and believe the United States will actually spend less money on healthcare if we guarantee the right to it. Public health will improve. Medical bankruptcies will disappear. Small businesses will benefit from not having to pay high insurance premiums for employees.
The opposition to this issue argues that if we implement a single-payer healthcare system, America could strive more towards the path of socialism (an ideology greatly feared by American conservatives), taxes will rise sky-high, medical services will be rationed, and that healthcare services will be overused. Yet, despite this, I still advocate implementing a universal health care system. Sure, there is some validity in these arguments, yet I cannot fathom how the cons of a single-payer system could ever outweigh the advantages.
More importantly, since we would not be the first country to implement universal healthcare, we could easily study the systems of Australia, Canada, England, Spain, Italy, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Norway, and Portugal, to name a few, and learn from their mistakes. Create a better system. Avoid the pitfalls. In this case, being last to the party is to our advantage—opening the way for us to create a far superior system that will serve as the model others would replicate.
To be fair, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada do indeed have a few examples of how universal coverage causes countries to ration medical services. According to Health Care Rationing is Nothing New by Beatrix Hoffman, these countries use methods such as controlled distribution, price setting, budgeting, and service restrictions to maintain costs. The publicly funded national health care system in the United Kingdom, called the National Health Service (NHS), sharply restricts access to medical procedures and services such as hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery, and prescription drugs to deal with widespread health issues such as diabetes or arthritis. And overall, average workers in European countries pay much higher taxes than in America. Payroll taxes average 37 percent in Europe, while a common worker in the United States pays around 15 percent according to Paul Roderick Gregory of Forbes magazine. But in my opinion, this number is misleading. If one were to combine the percentage of payroll taxes, cost of monthly insurance premiums, and yearly medical costs, the overall percentage of income would more than likely be higher than 37 percent, especially if a person is facing major illness.
As previously mentioned, the United States already has a single-payer health care system in one form. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) provides for eligible military veterans at various medical centers and outpatient clinics, near-comprehensive medical services, and also provides memorial and burial benefits to eligible veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, it is the largest integrated health care system, with 1,062 outpatient sites and 172 VA medical centers. According to the United States Census Bureau, there are 18.2 million veterans living in the United States, and more than nine million military veterans are served by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Although there are exceptions, the Veterans Health Administration is generally a helpful, efficient government institution that—according to CNN’S website as of September 2018—President Donald Trump requested an increase of $12.1 billion over 2018 with an appropriation of $198.6 billion for the department in the 2019 fiscal budget.
My stepfather (whom I refer to as my dad) and two of my grandfathers are all veterans who sing praises about the VA system. This past November, my dad had a blood sugar spike, causing him to pass out while swimming in the ocean. Luckily, my mother was able to pull him to safety, and he was sent to our local hospital instead of the VA hospital several miles away due to its proximity to the beach and the urgency of the situation.
My dad, who served twenty years and earned over twenty medals in the United States Navy, spent a total of four hours in the hospital and was sent home the same evening. I was by his side the entire time, and with the exception of a few blood tests and a CAT scan to check for a concussion, he did not receive any treatment for his near drowning. He didn’t even occupy a hospital bed overnight, yet our family incurred a bill for $24,000—the equivalent cost of a brand-new car that would provide transportation for ten years, was spent in only four hours.
Within days, bill collectors began calling my dad, mistakenly thinking he was uninsured. Fortunately, my family is in a good economic position and contemplated paying the bill in full to end the harassing calls, but the VA administration quickly picked up the entire tab, ending my family’s stress immediately. That is when I realized how a single-payer system can be a game changer in the right direction.
After the 2014 political scandal within the Veterans Health Administration, some on the right side of the political spectrum have suggested the VA should compete with private enterprises for veterans’ healthcare. They believe that by letting the money follow the veteran, it will create more transparency and more accountability. They believe that by giving vouchers and allowing veterans to decide if they are going to receive care from a private entity or the VA hospital, it would put the power in the hands of the customer. And some would flat out suggest we fully privatize the whole system. Take, for instance, former GOP presidential candidate, Dr. Ben Carson, who now serves as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. During his 2016 presidential campaign, he supported eradicating all VA medical programs and establishing medical vouchers that any veteran in the country could use to receive private medical services.
There are many flaws with this model, however. The bedrock problem of privatization is that our country would be placing valuable resources into the profit-driven private sector, which would eventually lead to profit-minded competitive advertising that would cause the VA hospital system to die on a vine. It would be like asking people whether they would like a hundred-dollar gift card from Amazon or the post office. In fact, re-directing public resources to the private sector would ensure higher prices, shortcuts in service, and the eradication of profitless treatments.
Also, veterans experience many ailments outside doctors are unfamiliar with, such as burn pit exposure and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The private sector would be less prepared to help the devastating bodily injuries caused by IED bombs, or to provide the physical and emotional rehabilitation required. Poor veterans with complex needs are expensive patients most for-profit entities would not be happy to serve, no matter how many vouchers might be presented.
Many would agree that veterans do not deserve second-rate health services. They do not deserve homelessness, or the lack of mental health, or the lack of substance abuse treatment. Which is why it is important to note that most of the attacks on the VA during the 2014 scandal may have been fueled by corporate-sponsored affiliates charged with destroying the credibility of a government-run program that provides, for the most part, “excellent care at low cost,” as Paul Krugman describes it. This, by some readers, may be highly speculative and reactionary, but as with many other things in our society, financial gain is usually the most logical motive behind any white-collar crime.
The indisputable fact is that the United States of America is the only wealthy, industrialized nation in the world to not ensure free healthcare for all. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017, the United States spends 18 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each year on healthcare, as compared to Turkey, which spends a mere 4.2 percent by providing free healthcare to all of its citizens.
The reason we fear change is that, much like slavery, we have mistakenly built an entire economy depend...

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