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Abstract. A broad rational national health care insurance policy for the United States, providing for universal financial access to health care for all citizens, has both "meaning" and "validity" in that it would address actual socioeconomic concerns and could be implemented. It is justified by theories of justice of Rawls and Donaldson as well as by Adam Smith's socioeconomic model. Social consensus in this area accepts the principle of solidarity that individual self‐interests may be better served through collective action, especially if such action is tied to competitive rules. Health care, therefore, is evolving as a public or quasi public good. The basic question no longer is whether the U.S. should have universal health care insurance but what specific health care policy the country should adopt in order to strengthen the market system and to maximize social welfare as effectively as possible.

Abstract. The holistic approach of quantum theory is investigated as a tool for social economists to analyze and to interpret socioeconomic reality and paradigms. The link between quantum theory and the social economist's approach to socioeconomic reality, i.e., the "what is," rests on the premise that each element of the socioeconomic universe relates to the whole system and vice versa. In other words, the meaning of each part is to be found in its implicit reflection of the whole of reality; it has no meaning exclusive of the whole. In terms of quantum theory, investigations of microeconomic processes are interwoven with the macroeconomic frame of reference of the observer. The very act of observation is to be considered as an integral part of the observed system.

Abstract. The paradigm of a social market economy provides a rational basis for resolving structural socioeconomic changes, as presently evidenced in the People's Republic of China. China's approach to socioeconomic change, labeled as "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," resembles a modified version of Eucken's paradigm of a social market economy.1 The Chinese paradigm, leaning on that of Walter Eucken, provides for a "limited"free market, which not only accommodates economic growth and change, but which also makes allowance for some degree of human, especially economic freedom, and dignity. Eucken's model is based on a sound institutional and legal framework which he considered to be essential for a viable modern market economy. China's new socioeconomic program is moving the country in this direction. It takes into account people's desire for a useful and Just socioeconomic order (however defined), characterized by stable socioeconomic and political policies and by a flexible price mechanism, to enable them to live a life in dignity, free of economic deprivation.

Abstract. Labor and capital are usually considered as the primary factors of production, the costs of which are of utmost importance. In contrast, nature (including all natural resources), as the essential third factor, is disregarded. She is generally assumed to be always available, self‐regenerating, and to be exploited without long‐term costs. In other words, she is more or less viewed as a constant. Hans Immler's new treatise represents an important contribution in that he emphasizes the role and function of the natural environment, and its neglect, in the formulation of theories of value and their long‐term consequences on contemporary economic theories and on the person and society. This essay traces Immler's evaluation with extensive quotations—especially with regard to Physiocracy and the classical economists— of nature's role and function, or their neglect, in the formulation of theories of value through the writings of Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, William Petty, John Locke, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and others—all dealt with in Part 1 of his book—and Francois Quesnay and the Physiocrats—the topic of Part 2.

Abstract. Walter Eucken's paradigm of a "social market economy" and "Ordnung" provides a framework for a functional free‐market mechanism, which not only accommodates development and change, but which also assures human dignity and freedom, as cornerstones of the Kantian moral universe. Eucken places special emphasis on the integration of economics with "order" and "Justice," in a synthesis of negative liberty and positive freedom and of Rawls' and Nozick's theories of justice. Adam Smith's laissez faire economy does not assure a competitive economy, he holds, and will evolve into monopolistic practices, interventionism, and distortions of price relationships; but "structural" and "regulating" principles will facilitate a functionally competitive economy with a compatible social policy, characterized by a flexible price mechanism and stable policies. This "social market economy" would provide goods and services efficiently and also eliminate poverty and the maldistribution of income and resources.

Abstract. "Structuralism" and "functionalism" facilitate an analysis of the evolution oi economic thought as a series of cultural, institutional, and socioeconomic challenges and responses. The methodologies of "structuralism" and "functionalism," like Hegelian dialectics, 1 to which they are closely related, do not consider thought systems or socioeconomic systems in terms of fixed and stable relationships but in the light of dynamic processes of change. They emphasize communication, feedback, and continuity. The aim of these methodologies is to facilitate the analyses of changes in interrelationships which constitute the processes of evolution. The economist is concerned with the theoretical analysis of socioeconomic processes. His task can be facilitated by describing and analyzing structural‐functional relationships of the economy and its parts. However, the methodologies of structuralism and functionalism cannot be used to predict theoretical developments. At best they can be utilized to select from some set of possible alternatives.