The Fix for the Economy

Solyndra is just a single example of what is wrong with government. It is not the biggest example nor is it likely the most egregious, it simply has gotten the most attention because of the transparency of the problem.

.

The problem is that government is trying to rig the economy. The politicians are trying to pick winners and losers, depending on whatever criteria or whoever scratches their backs. As Solyndra and countless other examples show, this is insidious and stupid. It is not only wasting taxpayer dollars and capital around from where it will do the most good to where it will not: failing companies. It is not only corrupt politics, with recievers of government largesse donating large amounts of it back to the politicians who got them the cash. Make no mistake, it is those things. But the absolute worst thing is that it corrupts all of us.

It corrupts the government that is supposed to represent all of us equally. It corrupts those who recieve the largesse and those that greedily want to get theirs. It corrupts the "free economy", turning it into a plaything of micromanaging bureaucrats and politicians. It corrupts the public who become conditioned to think that government handouts will improve the economy or "create jobs", they do not. Government jobs produce nothing, they are a drain on the economy. Government funded, subsidized jobs are not an improvement.

For an economy to function properly businesses must earn their keep, not have it handed to them. Having it handed to them makes them lazy, listless and wanting more handouts. They no longer have an incentive to produce a tangible, useful or efficient product. Worse when government policies are changed to favor those lazy, listless and efficient businesses over their unfavored, unsubsidized rivals. Not only does a bad company get rewards but a good company gets punished by favor-seeking politicians and bureaucrats.

Politicians will say their plan will create jobs but they will never say they are fake, subsidized jobs that could never exist in a real economy. They never tell the voters that these jobs will require them to be robbed to have. Of course not, to say "I'm robbing you to create these fake, potemkin jobs for temporary political gain" would be far too truthful for the politicians to ever utter. They will even have the gall to call for taxes to be raised on the good, unsubsidized businesses and the good unsubsidized jobs in order to fund their "utopian jobs plans".

In fact doing nothing would be far better for job creation that passing the "jobs plan" as proposed by President Obama just as doing nothing would have been far better than passing TARP under President George W Bush. Doing nothing is the best thing the government could do if they really wanted to create real jobs in this country, jobs that pay taxes instead of jobs that require taxes on others. Both parties are guilty of this, spanning decades. Using false ideas of "job creation" in order to convince the public to give them their votes. Today, though, this is the very centerpiece of government economic policy instead of one of the side dishes. This is simply economic insanity.

If you want to see real jobs that pay taxes instead of jobs that raise taxes then we need to cut government regulation and taxes. Taxes and regulation are a burden on the economy. When this burden becomes untenable we get economic slowdowns, recessions, or even economic reversals, depression. Today the burden is too heavy, the engine is overburdened and the car will never get up that hill without lessening the weight on it.

A good balanced plan would lower taxes on business and everyone else. We would stop punishing investment, which is required for a growing economy. We must also end all forms of subsidies and handouts for corporations and non-government organizations. There is simply no good reason for the government to be funding anything other than government.