Ninety-five percent of
workers (voters) will get a tax cut, says Barack Obama, and John
McCain promises even greater cuts. This bit of alchemy is going to be
interesting to see unfold since the government has committed to
spending $700 billion on a bailout plus another $600 billion on
incidentals. Isn't it amazing: Both political parties trying to
out-do each other about how much they will do for us -- with our own
money? I'll betcha whoever is president, taxes will go up.
Does anyone really
believe you can cut taxes for 95 percent of the people, spend over a
trillion dollars on a rescue plan and increase health care coverage
for millions merely by having the "richest" 5 percent of taxpayers pay
for everything?
It's hard not to get a
side ache laughing. The Wall
Street Journal reported Oct. 29 that Americans, according
to Democrats, increasingly believe that higher taxes and more
government are the solution to more jobs and a stronger economy.
Republicans, of course, will go along to get along, to end gridlock in
Washington. The Founding Fathers actually loved gridlock, only they
called it "Checks and Balances."
Have you ever wondered
why some people so easily believe their neighbors can spend money more
wisely than themselves? After all, every politician and government
bureaucrat is someone's neighbor, and just by going to work for the
government does not suddenly make them omniscient, wise and selfless.
First,
government does not have any money of its own until it takes from you
-- the private sector.
Second,
for every job the government creates it destroys a job, since the
money the government takes in taxes is not available to pay for a
privately created job.
Third,
jobs and wages are determined by consumers through their buying or not
buying what is being produced. The greater the demand for products and
services, the higher the profits and higher the salaries of workers,
as wages are bid up to lure workers away from less desirable jobs in
the eyes of consumers.
Fourth,
private producers/businesses provide what consumers want most urgently
and are willing to pay for. Government provides what will get the most
votes and campaign contributions.
Let's compare the two.
Businesses tend to provide food, shelter, clothing and comfort.
Imagine the great private entrepreneurs, from John D. Rockefeller and
Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs plus the numerous
farmers, homebuilders and clothing manufacturers, etc. We all know
what the private sector provides by what we buy every day and pay
relative to quality.
Now imagine today's
great political entrepreneurs, Edward Kennedy, Robert Byrd or Ted
Stevens plus the Congress. To know what government provides you with
your tax dollars, just for fun, we go to an insider -- the late Sen.
William Proxmire, who put it in writing.
Government spent
$500,000 to find out why rats, monkeys and human beings clench their
teeth. (Taxpayers, I could tell researchers, clench their teeth when
reading how government spends their money).
The National Science
Foundation spent $84,000 to study why people fall in love.
(Apparently, the answer is a state secret). Your tax dollar at work!
One research scientist
was paid $97,000 to interview 21 prostitutes in Peru over a period of
one year. (Boy! What a dynamite foreign aid program).
The government spent
$46,000 to determine how long it takes to cook a breakfast. (Believe
it or not, it takes 838 "measurement units" to fry two eggs in a
skillet).
The National Science
Foundation spent $46,100 to find out if bikini-clad women can reduce
the honking of frustrated drivers during traffic jams. (They can, but
whistling increases).
This led to a more
serious $222,000 study by the Federal Highway Administration, to
determine if drivers felt that large trucks contribute to traffic
congestions, block vision or go too slowly up hills.
My favorite local
examples are $2 million spent to save two checkerspot butterflies in
the Highway 125 right-of-way and $9 million to relocate eight pairs of
least Bell's Vireo in the Highway 52 right-of-way ($9 million for new
birdhouses not even in La Jolla while the butterflies died, I'm told,
from being fondled?). There are tens of thousands of similar programs
and still some people have blind faith that government can spend their
money better than they can.
Why do so many people
look to government to solve their problems? In "The Grand Inquisitor,"
Fyodor Dostoevsky writes that nothing is more frightening and
difficult to bear than freedom (to be responsible for one's self, for
providing one's own food, clothing, shelter and well-being). The very
attractiveness of some countries in Europe, Cuba and North Korea,
perhaps Venezuela, is that their governments promise to care for their
citizens if only they will give up their freedom, self-reliance and
self-respect.
