Curmudgeon's Corner

Stimulated?

Posted by Al Campbell on Oct. 16, 2009

Economy, Political, Quality of Life, Taxes, U.S.

Are you feeling stimulated?  Have your unemployed neighbors, or you for that matter, found employment?  Do plant closings and the outflow of jobs seem to indicate that we've turned a corner?  If so, have we moved to a better place or not?

One of the answers to these questions would be yes, if you are employed by the taxpayers.  That seems to be indicated from a study released in Madison showing that the bulk of identifiable jobs having been created or "saved" were state employee positions.

So our tax dollars, that were entrusted to Joe Biden so he could mind the turn-around store, have managed to grow or maintain government but have seemingly done little or nothing to help the private sector.

With the exception of Germantown, and possibly Washington County although I'd need to study that to be sure, governments simply do not shrink or even stop growing during difficult economic times.  They either maintain themselves using our money or they grow using our money.  That growth typically occurs under the guise of helping us.  It funds some novel new idea of how to re-educate workers, or it staffs some new facilities where residents can go to sign up for the next give-away program, or it funds a construction project that helps the employees of the construction companies (who coincidentally are union members).

There is an old saying about smelly stuff flowing downhill.  Why does that flow downhill while the dollars that could help at the bottom of the food chain never quite get where they're needed?

Our futures have been, and are being, mortgaged to grow the government.  Governments do not create wealth.  The private sector creates wealth.  As government takes more and more from the private sector, it simply stifles what that sector could otherwise accomplish if left to do what it does...create wealth.

The "stimulus" bill has so badly missed its mark that our federal government is now thinking of pumping more of our money into the economy but using some other name to describe the process.

The greatest stimulus package that could be put into place would be quite simple.  It would involve something called a "tax holiday".  Permit us to keep more of what we earn or receive from investments, and step back and let the magic happen.

Instead of something such as that, our government is considering a new tax, the value added tax popular among European governments.  Spending on silly "programs" simply is out of control and there is not the will to stop the spending either at the state or national level.

We have moved solidly into the era of 'government is the solution' and that is the problem.  Both sides of the political aisle need to step back and reassess what it is they supposedly represent.  The populace is tiring very rapidly.