Leland R. Beaumont is an independent wisdom researcher who is seeking real good. He is currently developing the Applied Wisdom curriculum on Wikiversity.
Researcher Abraham Maslow recognized that people have many needs, and they are motivated to meet certain basic needs before turning their attention to higher levels of fulfillment. His insights are often represented using a pyramid to illustrate this hierarchy. The physiological needs of air, water, food, shelter, sanitation, and sleep form the base of the pyramid because people seek to meet these needs before attending to safety, belonging, esteem and other higher levels of fulfillment.
By assessing needs that are met and unmet, a person can determine their current position in the hierarchy. Because people seek higher levels of fulfillment, the higher levels of the pyramid generally represent greater life satisfaction. We strive to move up the pyramid.
When governments are formed “ for the people,” we can use this hierarchy to assess how well any particular government is meeting the needs of its people. Governments attain better results when they allow more people to meet more of their needs. To determine how well the government is doing, plot the position of each person against the needs hierarchy. Two examples are shown in the diagram and described below.
Better governments allow more people to meet more of their needs.
The results of a poorly performing government are represented on the left. Here many people are lacking clean safe drinking water, some people are hungry or homeless, and even their most basic physiological needs are not being met. These unfortunate people are shown in red in the diagram, where each icon represents one percent of the population. When people feel unsafe because of crime, terrorism, threats, oppression, humiliation, violence, war, or other human rights violations, their safety needs are not being met. These threatened people are represented on the diagram in orange. When social systems lead to isolation rather than foster community, these alienated people don’t feel like they belong. They are represented by amber icons.
In contrast, the government represented on the right is attaining better results for the people. Here everyone has met their physiological needs, and most have met their safety needs. Many people will attain higher levels of satisfaction by fulfilling their belonging, esteem, cognitive, and aesthetic needs. These people are flourishing as they become engaged in the culture, gain self-esteem, continue to learn, develop moral reasoning, and enjoy frequent encounters with beauty. A few will “become all they can be” and reach their full potential as they attain self-actualization. Some especially wise people, shown in violet, achieve transcendence — experiencing deep connections beyond themselves. (Beware of delusions and charlatans.)
This approach to evaluating government results can transform abstract policy questions and speculative theories of government into empirical questions that can be reliably answered by carefully evaluating evidence. We can determine what governments are attaining better results, learn from their successes, and continue to develop and improve.
Although this may be simple, it won’t be easy; we must get started.
This article originally appeared on Wikiversity.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."