"That gives the U.S. a real advantage in providing education, health care, and national security—plus all the other stuff that makes a country thrive."

So? It's not that we can't provide this stuff, we just don't want to?

Historian Jean Gimpel stated years ago that the US lost its competitive edge when it bowed out of the race to develop and SST back in the 1970s. Of course, he was writing in the '80s and couldn't have forseen that the Concorde would be osolete by now.

I agree, Boniface. If I had had kids, I could never have afforded to send them to college the way my parents could send me. My college tuition was only twice that of my high school, and my high school was far from top tier.