SXSW 2017 kicked off on March 10 last week in Austin, Texas. The event will take place March 10-19 with conferences, workshops, trade shows, and events to partake in during the festival.

For the past several years, SXSW kicks off the festival with keynote speakers that have worked to define their respective industries. This year, former Vice President Joe Biden, was on hand to illustrate the importance of healthcare.

“Obviously Pharrell is not playing at the same time.” – Joe Biden

Biden discussed his latest program that stemmed out of the White House Cancer Moonshot to help families fighting cancer. In addition, this speech shows the value of investing in healthcare in comparison to military spending.

After eight years of working with President Barack Obama on improving the state of healthcare, it can be seen with the current administration that funding for healthcare will be decreased, and the funding that goes into the military will increase.

A real issue is that Donald Trump plans to make cuts in social programs, but increase spending on defense, and has made plans to build a wall that is estimated to cost 10-15 billon dollars. Those costs will increase debt. The increase in costs in no way outweigh the cuts that the current administration is planning on. The trickle-down theory has also been proven to fail with presidents swimming in debt.

The only smart, intelligent and educated move that Donald Trump could take is to raise corporate and personal taxes for a six month period. The problem is that the government uses racism and fear to push agendas that keep poor, uneducated people voting for politicians that will defund their healthcare and social programs, at the same time as giving them false hope that the trickle-down theory will work one day.

Joe Biden has worked countless hours to help provide our country with resources in health programs, education and additional social programs. It can be seen he does not want all that hard work to go to the wayside due to a group of uneducated voters, primarily college educated, that want to lower taxes.

I understand everyone wants more money to decrease stress in their lives. Other developed countries pay far more in taxes in comparison to our country, and they tend to pay far less for military operations. The lack of money does not create stress in your life. It is the lack of proactive behavior that creates stress. The problem is that it is extremely hard to get someone to take a hard look at themselves.

It is amazing that people like Joe Biden is fighting to build resources independently to help fund research for healthcare. It is truly amazing. His speech is available to stream in entirety on YouTube below.