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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 2/4/09

A Nation of Deadbeats?

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So who’s left, besides Amish farmers, blacksmiths, and short-order cooks?  Have we really become a nation of idlers and deadbeats?

 

Steele’s point is absurd, of course.  But underlying the absurdity are three presumptions that may be worth paying attention to.

 

The first presumption is that that no one in or close to government does legitimate work.  If that is true, then government spending is by definition wasteful spending and government has no power to stimulate the economy through spending.  Private enterprise alone can do that.  And the way to get private enterprise to do that is by reducing their taxes and giving them more money to spend.

 

Of course, if that were true, then after seven years of tax cuts, rebates, and bailouts, we should not be in the fix we are in now.

 

The second presumption is that if private enterprise has more money, it will in fact use it to stimulate the economy.  Recent experience shows that this is not true.  These days, people and businesses are more likely to pay off past obligations and put what’s left in their pockets.  Neither generates near-term economic output.

 

Tax cuts do help make the rich richer while benefiting the poor, jobless, and homeless not at all.  But those people are just indolent; maybe they should get off their duffs and get real jobs.  Steele no doubt agrees.

 

The third presumption is that competence in a government job is a moot concept since that government job is not a legitimate pursuit in the first place.  If that’s their belief, then it’s easy to see how government has been populated the past eight years by incompetents, political hacks, and miscellaneous hangers-on.  There’s no need for competent people in government; the competent ones have real jobs to go to.

 

Steele and the GOP need to re-think what it means to create a job and to hold one.  Either that, or they need to go out and get some real jobs for themselves.

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Rick Wise is an industrial psychologist and retired management consultant. For 15 years, he was managing director of ValueNet International, Inc. Before starting ValueNet, Rick was director, corporate training and, later, director, corporate (more...)
 
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