Here’s an inspirational story:
A $1 billion gift to Johns Hopkins University from billionaire Mike Bloomberg will make medical school free for most students, and increase financial aid for those enrolled in nursing, public health and other graduate programs.
In a Monday letter in the Bloomberg Philanthropies annual report, Bloomberg addressed the twin challenges of declining health and education. The gift marks an emphatic endorsement of the value of higher learning at a time when academia has been increasingly under political attack. [WaPo]
I wonder how long before someone on the right starts screaming But that’s socialism!
Because you know someone will, and Bloomberg is a Democrat.
Still, it’s worth contemplating the fact that our society is in need of medical professionals, and education of same has been growing faster than inflation. The pandemic motivated quite a number of members of the allied professions (docs, nurses, aides, techs, etc) to die, retire, or transfer to other, less stressful professions, so we’re in need – and I have to wonder if the United States is an attractive professional destination for medical folks any longer, what with all the political uproar.
While it’s far afield from the academic definition of socialism, we could say that socialism is a bandage for repairing what capitalism cannot.
