(5/4/2002- 19 years ago)
I can still think and write, but I am placing all my old columns in bound volumes, and I keep running across good ones, and will repeat them as I see fit.
“In the field of economics, there are many facets. It isn’t just buying and selling gold and silver. It’s tariffs, deficits, profits, gross, net, employment, unemployment, politics, money, be it good or bad, foreign trade and relations, plus a host of things about which are never written. Jobs are a prime factor in an economic picture. Not only jobs, but any source of income, is integral in economics. It is jobs which are necessary to put the food on the table, provide housing, transportation, medical care, or other of life’s necessities. Most of us realize that productive employment, either self, as with me, or in a job, as with most, is compulsory.
“Government loves to brag about “the number of jobs it has created,” and I always have to laugh at that, although the media and most Americans actually believe that falsehood. The only jobs that government can create, fall under the heading of ‘bureaucrat,’ or related employment. No corporation, no business, no factory, employs as many as does the federal government. Be it cars, pencils, office equipment or buildings; the federal government buys and owns, more than anyone else. It claims to own more land that does anyone else, even though it has no Constitutional authority to do so, nor deeds for the land it “owns.” One simply cannot grasp the all-encompassing power and total influence that we exist under, and it gets more so with each passing day.
“A typical example involves a home beauty operator in a small town in my state of Colorado. She had been operating out of her home for 41 years, using the same septic system as is used in the rest or her home. An OSHA nitwit came along, told her she had to have a separate septic system for the single sink in her home shop, or be fined $25,000 per day, if she doesn’t install one within 60 days. In my town, a man operating a sprinkler system company, was fined hundreds of dollars for making a one dollar and a few cents error on a quarterly return. In Ouray (pronounced U-Ray), a town 35 miles from me, a federal popinjay wandered into a restaurant, where a lone contractor, with no employees, was doing a bit of remodeling. His table saw had no ‘required’ blade shield, which most of us throw away, as they just get in the way, and are actually dangerous. He was fined close to $5,000, and another fine for the restaurant owner as well! Both appealed, but the legal costs were enormous and time consuming, so they just paid. The point in America has almost been reached, when we have had enough of being trampled by big government.
“Government created jobs do the above-mentioned atrocities to innocent, hard working, productive persons trying to eke out a living. The “jobs created” figure, is extremely misleading. A “Job,” according to federal statistics, is “a worker holding a position, either full time or part time, for one calendar year.” IF a person gets three part time jobs, that constitutes ‘three jobs created,’ even though government created no jobs at all. Equally, if a person holds a job for one year, quits, and finds another job the next day, another “job” was created, according to government gobbledygook. How many government employees are on the public payroll to complete these figures is unknown. The only way a government can create jobs is to hire them for itself, or possibly relax some regulation or rule which allows a private company to prosper a bit more, thus hiring more employees. The latter, is job creation. Congress, conveniently exempts itself from most rules and regulations.”
Don Stott- don@coloradogold.com