The Cornbread Mafia

The wine of youth does not always clear with advancing year; sometimes it grows more turbid. The very frequent neurotic disturbances of adult years all have one thing in common: they want to carry the psychology of the youthful phase over the threshold of the so-called years of the so-called years of discretion. Square groper is a slang term for bales of marijuana thrown overboard or out of airplanes in South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s. South Florida was once called “the dope smuggling capital of the country.” In 1978, there was a move to legalize marijuana because 13 million Americans used it regularly. The federal government started phasing out commercial fishing in Everglade’s National Park. The commercial fishermen had to find some way to feed their families. It was suggested that people find alternate sources of income, and they did. The money was in Marijuana, it was like their savior. In fact, 80 percent of the male population in Everglade City were arrested for smuggling square groper. By the late 1970s, the U.S.A. Customs Service was reporting that 87 percent of all the marijuana seizures in the United States of America were made in South Florida. What tipped investigators off was the newfound wealth—evidenced by shiny cars, trucks, boats, and even new houses. The flagrant posturing finally drove home the need for outside law assistance to combat the smuggling. The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency was called in to infiltrate the tight-knit community by posing as buyers, sellers and even boat handlers. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

On July 7, 1983, more than 200 lawmen representing DEA, FBI, and the IRS, coupled with the U.S.A. Coast Guard officers and Collier Country Sheriff’s Office deputies, swept across the county in one of the nation’s biggest marijuana smuggling crackdowns. Route 29, the only road into Everglades City was sealed off at 5 A.M. Agents patrolled the mangroves by boat, while government airplanes and helicopters kept an eye on the town. Now, the population of the town was 526 people. That day, the two-year-long undercover Operations Everglades netted 28 people: 12 from the Everglades City and Chokoloskee area and 16 from Naples and elsewhere throughout Florida. Agents also grabbed 14 boats, assorted cars and trucks an two small airplanes, all of which allegedly were used in the smuggling of marijuana. Fifteen handguns one rifle, one submachine gun and a MAC-11 machine gun were confiscated from one resident. More than 75 tons of marijuana a week from the mountains of Colombia into the 2,000 square miles of salt-water labyrinth known as the Ten Thousand Islands was being smuggled in. Some people went from making $18,000 a year to $528,000 in marijuana profits. There were even “strumpets” who served as the party girls of mistresses for the growers, “decent women” who would bear their children and keep their homes, and the “women-in-between” who somehow carved out an egalitarian role in the patriarchal marijuana industry. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Marijuana is often viewed as a harmful drug from which the public must be protected. In reality marijuana has been in use for at least 5,000 years and is one of the oldest agricultural crops in existence. The negative image of marijuana now possess is largely a social construction, created by moral entrepreneurs, not a product of concrete, science evidence attesting to the social and medical dangers of the drug. However, marijuana has served many purposes (in addition to being a recreational drug) over the years ranging from the manufacture of cloth and rope to medicinal applications. Despite its value, marijuana continues to maintain a negative image generating controversy whenever potential legalization is discussed in the United States of America. Despite the evolution of public disapproval and legal restrictions on the growth, distribution and use of marijuana, the marijuana industry continues to grow in California. In 2022, more than 5 million marijuana plants were confiscated in California. In 2016, when California voters faced the choice of whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, they heard promises that it would help end the “war on drugs,” brining it tax revenue. Cannabis sales were $5.3 billion in California for the year of 2022. And state tax revenue dropped from $251.3 million in the third quarter of 2022 to $221.6 million in the fourth quarter. However, on the federal level, cannabis remains illegal. The federal government classifies cannabis, along with heroin and cocaine, as Schedule I drug with a high potential for abuse and little to no medical benefit. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

The typical rural Kentucky marijuana grower is a European America male between the ages of 35 and 50, with a high school education. He most almost always is married, with at least one child. He is rarely a user of marijuana and is often a respected, church-going, community leader with no previous arrest record. The typical marijuana grower, as is the case with nearly all community members, has strong, extensive kinship ties with roots in his community dating back to the first settlers. Data about individuals and their culture and communities are relatively scarce in the academic literature. There are generally three types of marijuana growers: the communal grower, the hustler, and the pragmatist. The communal grower believes growing marijuana makes a social statement. Some purchase land with the intention of growing marijuana, others drift into marijuana production as a part of their lifestyle. In Kentucky, a similar motivation drives some marijuana growers who desire self-sufficiency and seek to earn additional money as a supplement to low paying jobs. Unlike the young, urban, outsiders who migrated into Kentucky for a short period of time, the rural resident is not retreating from society. He is trying to survive within his society and maintain his way of life. The hustlers have both used and sold marijuana. They may grow a marijuana crop on land they own or they may purchase or rent land specifically for this purpose. Always adventuresome, the danger is an added appeal to the endeavor and allows the grower opportunities to match wits with law enforcement. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

When the excitement fades, they may retire. These people might well be equally successful in a legitimate business. Many members of the “Country Boys,” who dominate the Bluegrass County marijuana industry, fit in this category. The pragmatist grows marijuana due to economic hardship. These individuals acknowledge that growing marijuana is morally and legally wrong, but feel that due to circumstances they have no better option. Most Kentucky marijuana growers fit into this variety of grower. The unique cultural environment of rural Kentucky necessitates an expansion of young men and entrepreneurs. The youngster is the marijuana wanna-be. These are young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty who are most likely without both older males relatives within the marijuana industry and a kinship network that is significantly tied to the marijuana industry. They do not own land or have the agricultural skills necessary to grow quality marijuana. True marijuana growers may use these young men as mules to transport their marijuana. The entrepreneur most commonly begins as a hustler or pragmatist. In the beginning he grows marijuana out of economic necessity or he may view his actions simply as an alternative business venture. As time passes, he comes to enjoy devising new methods to elude detection. Even when he is financially secure, and no longer has an economic need to grow marijuana, he will continue to grow this crop and/or develop new ways of concealing and growing marijuana. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

Within this typology lies the primary reason why any attempts to eradicate marijuana growers from the hills of Kentucky have, and will likely continue to be next to impossible. The typical rural resident deeply resents interference from outsiders. Marijuana growers’ attitudes towards outsiders is even more intense. Rural residents will not discuss illegal activities which occur within the community with outsiders. It can be extremely difficult for the outsider to identify the marijuana industry participants within a rural Kentucky community. Marijuana growers are perceived as respectable citizens of the community and do not fit the stereotype of a “drug dealer” often portrayed in the media. The rural Kentucky resident knows who participates in the marijuana industry in the same way everyone in the community knows who is sleeping with whom and other community gossip. Historically, illegal activities have been a part of rural Kentucky culture. Many marijuana growers are the descendants of moonshiners and bootleggers. Within rural Kentucky communities a culture exists which protects and shelters those engaging in illegal activities from the scrutiny of outsiders. These norms and values, coupled with the economic crises facing the agricultural industry in recent decades have pushed rural families to pursue off-farm income sources. However, rural Kentucky values encourage independence and self-reliance. One consequence of such values is a resistance to outside interference or attempts to control rural activities, including eradication of marijuana. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

The small rural community and the rural culture provide the necessary structure and stabilizing factors to successfully raise and sell marijuana. These communities provide safety for both small independent growers as well as those involved in the organized aspect of the industry. The secrecy which surrounds marijuana growers (due to marijuana’s illegal status until January 2025) and the reluctance of the rural resident to discuss such activities with outsiders indicates an element of strong informal social control within the rural community. Such informal social control allows the marijuana industry to exist and flourish. Within the small rural community many expected social controls which are evident in mainstream society are not present. Thus, participants in illegal activities are allowed to function within the community without censor. Members of crime groups are not shunned, a would be expected if marijuana growers were perceived as deviants. Marijuana growers receive strong community support; the prevailing view in the community is that those involved in growing “alternative crops” have done nothing wrong. Economic factors play a large part in the introduction of organized crime to rural Kentucky. Rural Americans have been entering off-farm income accounted for over 70 percent of U.S.A. farm family income. However, while farmers are increasingly relying on non-farm employment, in rural Kentucky high rates of unemployment lead many residents to the marijuana industry. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

In 1989 Kentucky had an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent, however Bluegrass County’s unemployment rate was more than 30 percent higher at 8.3 percent overall and 9.7 percent for Bluegrass County males. Lacking plentiful employment opportunities, many rural Kentuckians are forced to migrate to cities. In an effort to retain their community, rural residents often remain silent or protect those involved in the marijuana industry and thereby keep residents in the community. Rural residents do not want their “kin” to migrate; consequently many rural citizens endure a long drive to and from the city rather than moving nearer their urban place of employment. Lacking well paying jobs, many rural males opt to grow marijuana to generate or supplement their incomes. Resident of Bluegrass County regard outsiders with distrust, believing outsiders to not respect them. The example of a Bluegrass County resident being apprehended for trafficking in marijuana is tinged with resentment—not empathy or compassion—towards the resident outsider. However, despite the arrests, many community members continue to go to grow and sell marijuana. Joe Paul explains the persistence of the marijuana industry in Bluegrass County, saying: “They’s several that was bigger than Buford and them Country Boys ever thought about being. Hell they got him for organized crime. He ain’t no big boss but they’s others in Bluegrass County that are. The law’s ignorant. They nailed Buford but they cover up their own screw-ups.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

On April 1^st, 2023, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana, making the Bluegrass State the 38^th in the nation to approve the medicinal use of cannabis for patients with serious health conditions. The Democratic governor, who had repeatedly called on lawmakers to legalize medical marijuana, signed the measure, Senate Bill 47, at a ceremony in Frankfort. Senate Bill 47 allows patients with certain qualifying medical conditions including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy and posttraumatic stress disorder to obtain a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis medicinally. The bill does not allow patients to smoke marijuana, although it does allow for the sale of unprocessed cannabis flower for vaporization. Other cannabis formulations including capsules, tinctures and topical product are also authorized by the bill. Patients will be permitted to possess a 10-day supply of cannabis on their person and a 30-day supply at home. The legislation directs the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to draft and implement regulations to enact the legislation and regulate the production and sale of medical marijuana in the state. Under the bill, Kentucky’s medical cannabis program is slated to launch by January 2025. In 2022, 184,295 marijuana plants were seized in Kentucky. The cultivation of domestic marijuana is a problem of manor concern for Kentucky State Police, as well as, all law enforcement agencies. Marijuana eradication and interdiction causes a sizeable drain on agency budgets. Marijuana has become one of the most profitable crops grown in the United States of America. Some claim it is the most profitable crop grown in Kentucky, surpassing the burley tobacco industry. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

Some of you may remember the “Cornbread Mafia,” which was the name for a group of Kentucky men who created the largest domestic marijuana production operation in the history of the United States of America. It was based in Marion, Nelson, and Washington counties in central Kentucky. Between 1985 and 1989, 70 Kentuckians were accused of growing 182 tons of marijuana on 29 farms in 10 states, including Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas, which federal prosecutors considered to be the largest domestic marijuana production organization in the nation. By the end of 1991, prosecutors had arrested more than 100 members of the Cornbread Mafia. Johnny Boone and Bobby Joe Shewmaker, were considered to be the leaders of the cartel. The bust was much bigger and more complex than the agents had ever imagined. The busted Minnesota harvest alone weighed ninety tones, the police said, a number they calculated by weighing one dump truck load, then multiplying that by sixty-two—the number of trips it took to clear the fields—and then multiplying that number by two because so much marijuana remained in the field that estimating its weight was “inconceivable.” This group was unique in the eyes of the law. Federal Task Force documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request note that, unlikely any other illegal drug operation of its size, the syndicate included no foreign nationals—that not only were all the participants American, but also they were from one state, from a three-county area, and the vast majority from Marion County. They were smuggling drugs to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and to South America. Many people have ethicized things like drug dealing, computer information science, and engineering, but they have forgot how innovative and notorious European Americans can be. It is like most people think all they do is quietly sit at the computer reading documents all day and somehow make a lot of money doing that, but they also play other roles in society. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

Empathy is the basic response capacity on which the process of socialization, development of a self, communication, and integration rest. Empathic capacity, like any other response capacity, requires a healthy organism. This type of response needs to special organ or faculty beyond the special human equipment of a highly developed cortex. Sensory acuity and capacity for accurate perception; neural and neuromuscular capacity for generalization and symbolization; capacity for covert mobilization of complex acts, symbolization of those acts, and the conduct of complex interacts at the covert level are critical importance. We have few specific hypotheses under this heading, aside from the obvious one that when the physical basis of an organism is impaired so is the organism’s capacity for empathic response. In the field of mental illness, the testing of hypotheses on the conditions and consequences of empathy might lead to highly interesting results. In general it is widely suspected that underdevelopment or impairment of empathic capacity plays a major role in many kinds of behavior disorders, particularly in schizophrenia. Under biological conditions also belong hypotheses concerning the effects on empathic capacity of various bodily states of extreme hunger, anger, pain, fear, excitement, intoxication, pleasure-anticipation, pain-anticipation, and similar conditions which restrict attention or reduce perception. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

Additional types of hypotheses about the social psychological consequents of certain biological conditions and their effects in turn upon empathic capacity are suggested here. For example: Prolonged illness increases habituation to a relationship of dependency and thus depresses empathic capacity on both sides of the relationship, but especially in the dependent member. Empathic capacity is negatively correlated with repression of biological functions. There isa negative correlation between the degree of repression of sexual functions and empathic capacity. Thus economic, social, and educational provision for minimizing the gap between organic sexual maturity and sexual functioning will have a positive effect on empathic capacity. Unwanted children are lower in empathic development than children who are desired and planned for. Instruction in how to safely and efficiently control the number of children born, and means to exercise this control, will result in a lower proportion of rejected people in the population By spreading the economic burden of having and rearing children over the whole population, the probability of children being born to people who want them will be increased, with a consequent increase in average empathic capacity. There is a critical point beyond which closer contact with another person will no longer lead to an increase in empathy. Up to a certain point, intimate interaction with others increases the capacity to empathize with them. However, when others are too constantly present, the organism appears to develop a protective resistance to responding to them. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

However, when other are too constantly present, the organism appears to develop a protective resistance to responding to them. As the numbers of people with whom one must deal increase, it is necessary to respond to them impersonally. This is exemplified in customer, passenger, and patient relations. This limit on the capacity to empathize should be taken into account in planning the optimal size and concentration of urban populations, as well as in planning the schools and the housing on individual families. Families who provide time and space for privacy, and who teach children the utility and satisfaction of withdrawing for private revery, will show higher average empathic capacity than those who do not. Economic conditions (job stability, income, conditions of work, and leisure time) become factors in the development and exercise of empathic capacity when they affect the amount of unhurried and anxiety-free time, and the facilities for stimulating activities, the parents can give their children. Their influence is also important to empathic development to the extent that they affect contact and participation in the life of the community. In less obvious ways they influence attitudes and values, and these in turn affect empathic skill: There is a negative correlation between the degree to which parents emphasize material possessions and other evidences of buying power in their evaluations of themselves and others, and their own and their children’s empathic capacity. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

To the extent that criteria of wealthy predominate in the selection of associates, social life becomes restricted and unstimulating and empathic capacity atrophies. Mate selection in which monetary criteria of eligibility predominate results in a higher proportion of marriages characterized by progressive deterioration of communication, companionship, and sexual compatibility. The effects on the empathic capacity of the parents and children will be correspondingly negative. The assumption by children of appropriately graded responsibilities for the economic welfare of the family (as for example, regular duties and special jobs in the home, or limited jobs outside) increases empathic capacity. (Note: This is of course no argument for child labor in the old sense. But revision of our economic, educational, and family institutional arrangements so as to make it a regular thing for all children, beginning at junior high school age, to have a limited and safeguard opportunity for genuine participation in the World of business, industry, and government, would probably be a desirable thing in terms of their optimal development.) The neurotic is a person who can never have things as one would like them in the present, and who can therefore never enjoy the past either. As formerly the neurotic could not escape from one’s childhood, so now one cannot part with one’s youth. One shrinks from the grey thoughts of approaching age, and, feeling the prospect before one unbearable, is always straining to look behind one. Just as the childish person shrinks back from the unknown in the World and in human existence, so the grown adult shrinks back from the second half of life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

At this stage of development of the whole being is affected. The man acts without using, or using fully, the mind, will, imagination, reason; that is without thinking (volitionally), deciding, imagining, reasoning. The affections seem dormant, as well as all the faculties of the mind and body. In some cases, the bodily needs are also dormant, or else the man suppresses them, and deprives himself of food, sleep, and bodily comfort at the dictation of the spirits in control, thus carrying out a “severity of the body” which is not of any real value against the indulgence of the flesh. The animal part of the man may also be awakened, and while stoical in sensibilities and feeling one becomes gluttonous in the demand for supply of bodily needs; that is, the machinery of the bodily frame goes on working independently of the control of mind or will, for the body now dominates spirit and soul. Men may live in the human spirit, in the soul, or in the body; for example, the glutton lives in, or after, the body; the student, in mind or soul; the spiritual man, in the spirit. If autonomy is self-sufficiency, a word must be said about one of the most powerful forces for man’s independence—technology. As one of the causes for the onslaught of secularization against religion, the chief and always effect weapon for this attack is the invasion of all religious groups by technology with its various waves of technical revolution. Its effect was and is, first of all, a secularization which destroys the old traditions, both of culture and religion. This is most obvious in a country like Japan. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

Technology is the formation of reality according to a goal. It produces tools and machines which mold material to patterns determined by man. As such, it serves man and is not in itself secular; in fact, technology can and should be consecrated, as hand labor was in days gone by. However, it is the technical mentality that secularizes—the drive t subjugate reality by harnessing it as means to an end, the loss of reverence for nature, and the eventual reduction of man himself to a machine, a tool, a unit of labor. Technology fosters secularism by providing man with an instrument seemingly capable of achieving human self-sufficiency. Yet we also acknowledge the debt which our World owes to technology. In contrast to much of what has been said, there is a saving power of the technical control of nature. In technology, we see liberation from animal drudgery, conquest of the narrow confines of time and space, and protection from unnecessary pain and death. Technology undoubtedly possesses destructive possibilities. Nevertheless, in the great feats of technical control, we have a breakthrough of the eternal into the temporal. Autonomy has been considered from several viewpoint: the secular, the process of profanization, and technology. It is the humanism that fails to transcend itself: Humanism is the attitude which makes man the measure of his own spiritual life, in art and philosophy, in science and politics, in social relations and personal ethics. For humanism the divine is manifest in the human; the ultimate concern of man is man. An autonomous humanism stops at the door of the temple without crossing the threshold of the holy. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

Since the 1990s, as life expectancy was rising and birth rates and the share of the population in its working age falling, most Western, especially European countries started to overhaul their social security systems in order to contain the increase of taxes, social contributions, and social spending. As a result social security benefits, especially pensions and health insurance payments, have been gradually reduced in scale. A number of countries elevated the retirement age. To provide for the means of support in the postretirement years, in the case of disability and so on, people have to save more and more by themselves, entrusting the management of the money they have accumulated to pension funds and other financial institutions. Net total social spending in the United States of America is approximately 30 percent of GDP, where the amount of private social spending and tax incentives is much larger than in other countries. This amount increased from 16.3 percent in 2001 to 17.4 percent in 2007, so since then we have seen an unprecedented increase in just 16 years. Today’s critical status of public finances makes it necessary to do everything possible to reverse or at least stop the trend. The West has to return to the roots of the social security concept. Basically, public social security payments are supposed to provide a minimal basic living standard, and not a cozy free lunch. However Social Security recipients are losing ground financially, despite receiving an annual cost-of-living (COLA) increase. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

It is estimated that the 2024 COLA for Social Security recipients will be only 2.7 percent. Social Security benefits have lost 34 percent of buying power since 2000. And in the past year alone, Social Security recipients fell 4 percent behind the rise in their actual cost of living. The loss occurred even though beneficiaries received a 2-perent annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) annually. Many of these people do not even qualify to rent in the free market because the amount of their benefits is so low. More than half of the 1,057 respondents who participated in the study reported that their monthly expenses went up by more than $200. Social Security recipients received a 8.7 COLA for 2023. Even though many counties placed regulations on how high rent could be raised, people who live in income based rental apartments saw a nearly 20 percent increase in their rent, which ate up more than half of the COLA increase for 2023. In addition, Social Security beneficiaries saw high inflation in 15 categories in December 2022. There was a fuel increase of 42.1 percent, airfare increase of 27.8 percent, utilities increased by 19.4 percent, cereals and bakery products increase by 16.3 percent, energy services increased by 15.4 percent, dairy and related products increased by 14.9 percent, motor vehicle insurance increased by 14.2 percent, electricity increased by 14.1 percent, transportation services increased by 14.1 percent, motor vehicle maintenance and repair increased by 13.4 percent, nonalcoholic beverages and beverage materials increased by 12.5 percent, food at home increased by 11.7 percent, food increased by 10.3 percent, for most, rent of primary residence increased by 8.6 percent, and all items increased by 6.3 percent. So, clearly their benefits are not keeping up with inflation. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

Additionally, high replacement rates (the ratio of public pension payments to the income from work the beneficiary received before retirement) in a number of countries, especially those facing grave public finance problems (for instance, in Greece it has reached around 90 percent), can hardly be sustained. However, Social Security is not going bankrupt. Hundreds of billions of dollars continue fueling Social Security. And will continue to do so as long as we have workers who earn wages. The most fundamental part of the Social Security program is that worker pay into the system during their working years. However, a big welfare state may badly undermine work motivation—an old problem coming to the forefront gain in the wake of the growing global competition, especially from China. While people out of work count on high social security benefits comparable to their earnings in times when they had a job, those who have a job are not motivated to work harder, as a substantial part of the increase of their earnings will be eaten out by high taxes and public social security contributions. On their part, employers restrain new hiring because they have to share the heavy social security burden. It pushes up unemployment rates. Overall, too big a welfare state reduced the efficiency of the use of human resources—the fundamental issues of primary importance the West has to address in a really serious way, not least in the wake of the Chinese challenge. Besides, one more somewhat tricky welfare state—related problem exists, deserving close attention. It is still largely unspoken because of its sensitivity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

The creation and expansion of public social security were driven by the quest for social justice. However, today those systems have turned out to be very unfair toward working families especially those in their 30s and 40s—the age when, logically, consumption activities should reach their peak. Those families have to pay more and more to support the elderly and other social security beneficiaries, while at this life stage their own living expenses, especially buying a home and brining up children, usually reach their peak, and while in today’s developed societies a substantial portion of the elderly and other people they have to support are richer than themselves. The picture is one of a worn-out guy in his 30s or 40, always on the run and, due to a tight family budget, thinking twice before buying essential items at a grocery store, or things he may need for his health, having to supper well-to-do guys in their 60s, 70s, and beyond who are relaxing a lot, having a jolly time hanging out in the parking lot doing drugs and drinking and vandalizing cars, playing cricket, swinging, or golf, traveling around the World for their own pleasure, and maybe even buying, without any hesitation, diamonds and furs for their wives and Cartier watches and Jordan sneakers for themselves, and lobster dinner with shots of tequila. Mind you, the former guy can hardly except to be provided the same amount of benefits from public social security funds when he himself hits 65 or 70. Of course, this sketch is grotesque and it does not pretend to grasp the whole picture. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

A lot of elderly people are not so well-to-do and need genuine social protection provided by the federal government. However, it represents a very important dimension of the problem. As the economy and society develop and mature, more and more people become financially capable of providing their living after retirement (either all the living expense or their substantial part), their medical expenses, and so on by themselves, without relying on income redistribution by the federal government. And they should do it. High dependency on public social security has to be limited to those who really cannot do without relying on state protection. Currently, Wester powers have no choice but to trim the welfare state on a large scale and at a higher speed than they did before the crisis. The welfare budget of the United States of America totaled $1.215 trillion in fiscal year 2022 or 19 percent of all federal outlays. The President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development is $63.1 billion for foreign assistance and diplomatic engagement. This is an increase from $49.35 billion in 2023. And since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S.A. Congress have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which many struggling families wish would be returned to them in tax rebates or used to fund homeless centers and other projects in their community to improve American lives. The budget has to be balanced and deficit spending has to be stopped; otherwise, Western societies will become financially unsustainable and economically powerless. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

The mentality of an average Western household is more and more entering the tomorrow-it-will-be-worse-than-today territory, inducing it to tighten the belts. Far more vital for U.S.A. power over the long run than its mass manufacturing base is its knowledge system or info-sphere. A look at this third leg of power triad contradict those who would hastily write off the immense residual power of the United States of America. Overfocusing on arms and money, they ignore or underestimate the role of knowledge in national power. Thus, the first enormous advantage that the United States of America holds at present is simply language. English is the whole World’s language in international science, commerce, aviation, and scores of other fields. Hundreds of millions of people all around the World are told to learn to speak English, learn American styles, inventions, products and ideas as this will give you a powerful thrust in the World. Another strength is America’s still-strong scientific and technological base. A great deal has been written about the declining percentage of patents being won by Americas, and other signs of scientific and technical infirmity. After World War II the United States of America for all practical purposes was the only major industrial state able to engage in scientific or technical research on a large scale. Under the circumstances, it is hardly reasonable to expect the United States of America to continue to hold the same percentage of patents it did in the past. The United States of America has lost its virtual monopoly. However, its scientific and technical base still towers over that of its rivals. The U.S.A. R&D for 2020 was $717.0 billion, which is more than the budget of Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom combined. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

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