> The goal of government, in my opinion, is to focus on long-term objectives: ensuring a sustainable healthy and educated population.
You can't ensure health unless you have wealth in the first place. You can see that things moved in that order in the past 300 years: the more wealthy a country was, the longer people lived and the better they could face different conditions. The greatest strides against mortality were accomplished long before the welfare state as an expression ever existed.
You should read the article more carefully. Poorer countries are working under difficult constraints, but leaving $1 on the table because you don't want to spend 10 cents is not helpful. There is a line of thought poorer countries are poor because they don't invest in healthcare, education, infrastructure, ... and that the real problem is governance.
You can't ensure health unless you have wealth in the first place. You can see that things moved in that order in the past 300 years: the more wealthy a country was, the longer people lived and the better they could face different conditions. The greatest strides against mortality were accomplished long before the welfare state as an expression ever existed.