May 17, 2007
By: Sid Riley
"THE "GREAT SOCIETY" AIN’T SO GREAT!!"
This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items that are impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope that you will read the column regularly and that it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week::
"SOCIALISM DOES NOT WORK!!!"
The concept of socialism as a form of government and a lifestyle of a population has been proven to be a concept that is doomed to failure. Notable examples are pre World War II systems in Italy, and more recently the failure of the economic systems in Russia. The concept of socialism rings a resounding moral note, but in practice it does not work.
Under socialism you have a huge bureaucracy and central government that controls all aspects of business and life. Most of the money earned by companies and individuals is collected by government though taxation, and then redistributed among the population. Government makes all decisions, and closely regulates all activities in business and personal matters. Big brother rules for the common good!
Sound familiar? That is where we are going, and I fear the ultimate result.
The primary cause for the failure of this approach is that all personal motivation and innovation is destroyed. The promise of personal gains from hard work and personal development is lost. There is no incentive to succeed. The focus shifts to getting the most possible in "hand outs" from the government instead of gaining through productivity. There is no concern for profitability, productivity, cost control, or customer satisfaction. Almost everyone works for some element of government or a company that is working for government.
"Here Charlie, we are going to pay you a minimum of $20,000 per year, whether you work or not. And if you do work and earn more than $25,000 we are going to take everything over that amount and give it to everyone else." Well, after a short period Charlie realizes that the gain from working isn’t worth the time and effort. So Charlie does just enough to qualify for the free money, and becomes a worthless citizen.
As the system begins to fail, and the bureaucracy has become so large that it’s cost of operations exceeds the available money reaped from the population, other problems begin to become rampant. In order to supplement their diminishing incomes, the bureaucrats resort to requiring bribes, or "kick backs", before they will provide the services they are supposed to be providing for the citizens. This becomes a second level of taxation, causes progress to grind to a stop, and further disadvantages the population.
Socialism in America started in the reconstruction period under Franklin Roosevelt as he
struggled to bring the nation out of the Great Depression of the thirties. Most of these programs related to industrial controls and creating jobs, as government began to become involved in commerce and industry.
The real boost to the socialistic movement in the United States came in the late 1960’s when President Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey initiated the concept of "The Great Society". This is when it was declared that government had a responsibility for assuring that every citizen had good housing, food, and a minimum of income. This is when all of our welfare programs started, and increased taxation was legislated to pay for these social "entitlements".
Since that time government has been on the march. It has steadily grown and spread it’s regulatory wings into every segment of our lives. It closely regulates every industry and business and dictates how we will raise our children, how we build our houses, how we maintain our property, and even how much water we use when we flush our toilets. Industry is evaporating, and almost everyone works for some element of government, or a business that is working for government. We have migrated to a point that we are a socialistic system at this time. The phase of decline is beginning.
"An accumulation of odds and ends – rudiments."
This portion of my column will be a hodge-podge of various comments, notes, and short dissertations on various items that have accumulated on my desk and in my mind during the past few weeks. So, here they come.
- The county representative have pled their case to the "Lords Of Tallahassee" and have managed to get them to dole out wonderful gifts of lumps of free tax money (grants) for our use. Some of the uses of this money are needed and justified, others are very questionable. Some of these gifts from the state stash were requested only because the money was there and the pervasive philosophy of " if we don’t get it, someone else will!" caused us to make the request. Should we be happy and proud of this money…..or ashamed?
- Plans are proceeding on building new buildings for the county administration, emergency operations, health department, and hospital. These new buildings would leave us with empty, deteriorating buildings which include the existing administrative annex, the permit building on Lafayette east, the Sykes building, the complex of buildings at the old Marianna High School, the existing Public Health building, and the existing hospital. Hang on to your pocket books!!!
- Work has begun on improvements on Kelson Avenue in Marianna. This work is being paid for by a hidden "road tax" that was created by a deceitful City Commission in the form of ridiculous sewage-water rates. Every business and home in the city is paying from $400 to $800 per year in this unfair approach. I think they should change the name from Kelson Avenue to "Water Street".
- Work continues on the bridge at the Mill Pond…..
BUREAUCRATIC FUNGUS OF THE WEEK:
As previously discussed, the bureaucracy is filled with many species of fungi that choke productivity, create waste, and make government less and less effective. This week’s species is "Bureaucraticus Stupidious" (English Translation= I need not say more!)
Well, that’s about it for now. Please help us stop these concepts, attitudes, and programs that are working to destroy our nation and our lifestyles. If you do help, you will be "Getting It Right"!
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