Jobs

In the field of economics, there are many facets. It isn't just all buying gold and silver. It's tariffs, deficits, profits, gross, net, employment, unemployment, politics, money, be it good or bad, foreign trade and relations, and a host of things mostly never written about on GOLD-EAGLE. Jobs are a prime factor in any economic picture. Not only jobs, but any source of income, is integral to economics. It is jobs, that 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 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. No corporation, business, or entity, buys as much stuff, 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 than does anyone else, even though it has no Constitutional authority to do so, nor deeds for the land. It still "owns" it, till the unlikely event of a Supreme Court ruling that it doesn't. One simply cannot grasp the all encompassing power, and total influence we exist under, and it gets more so with each passing day. The federal government controls everything and everybody, and I don't know how to stop it, or even lessen it. We just protect ourselves the best we can. Don't believe me?

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 for the rest of her home. An OSHA halfwit 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 didn't install a separate 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 mistake on a quarterly return. In Ouray, a town 35 miles from here, 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! All of these were appealed, but the legal costs were enormous. 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 part time or full time, for one calendar year." If a person gets three part time jobs, and holds them for a year, that constitutes, "3 jobs created," even though government created no jobs at all. Equally, if a person holds a job for one year, quits, and finds another the next day, another "job has been created," according to government gobbledygook. How many government employees are on the payroll to compile these misleading figures, is unknown. The only way a government can "create jobs," is to hire them for itself, or possibly relax some regulation or rule that allows a private company to prosper a bit more, thus hiring more employees. The latter, is job creation, only in a negative sense. Congress conveniently exempts itself from most rules and regulations.

Government created employment and purchases, are not beneficial to a nation, and neither is government's "ownership" of land and buildings. When government pays a salary, buys a pencil, builds a building, or does virtually anything; the payment comes from the taxpayer, or value debasing, printed dollars. Paying taxes, uses money that could buy a TV set, automobile, roof for the house, or myriad other purchases. Private employment creates jobs that are paid for from PROFITS, and costs the taxpayer nothing. Government spending, confiscates dollars that could be used to create real, legitimate jobs. Government spending, slows or even stops private job creation, because the spending is used to create more rules, regulations, and salaries of the enforcers. This may be difficult to understand, because after all, when government spends money, jobs are required, to make what government buys. Government expenditures take money away from private expenditures, and at the same time increases government control over private life and business. Government spending, makes it increasingly difficult for business to show a profit, and ever more difficult for individuals to raise their standard of living, by purchasing the same or different goods that government has bought. Private employment salaries are provided by profits. Government shows no profit, and government employment is paid from decreasing private expenditures and profits.

If government spends less and hires fewer, taxes should go down, releasing more dollars for private purchases and profits. Private, corporate, or business purchases of items, land, and buildings, are far more beneficial to an economy than the false "prosperity" created by ever increasing government spending. All government spending is contrary to prosperity. A certain amount of government is needed to protect us, administer justice, and punish lawbreakers, but it should end there, according to our Constitution. Unfortunately, it hasn't. Government participation in everyone's lives, occupations, and businesses, is near 100%, and as I said in an earlier tome, our taxes are probably around 80%, if all taxes on everything in the entire chain of goods and services are figured. The larger government gets, the less chance we have of returning to a useful, self supporting, strong society, which we used to be. (Previous pieces I have written, can be found by clicking on "also by Don Stott" at the end of this piece. Also by requesting such, I will e-mail to you free, my book, "Consequences").

The subject of jobs and labor, also includes illegal Mexicans, who come here to work, because in Mexico, there is no welfare, pay is low, and living and working conditions can be abysmal. Many say they are needed, because they do the work Americans won't do, but is a fallacious argument. Dollars earned by illegals, are sent back to Mexico, who need it to alleviate their poverty. Fine, except that this work should be done by Americans, the dollars kept here, and would be, if they weren't being paid not to work. Thanks to welfare, Americans won't do the work. Needing it to be done, farmers hire illegals. Illegals send capital out of the country, and often farmers are fined or imprisoned for hiring illegals to get the work done. Fines and prison take producing people and dollars out of circulation, or places them in government's hands, which further erodes the economy. Private spending helps the economy, and government spending harms it. Since government spends and hires more than any other entity in America, the economy must progressively worsen. Worsen economically, because so great a percentage of GDP is government spending and salaries. Conversely, an ever-decreasing part of the GDP is for profit, private industry and business.

Government will never tell the public its spending is part of the GDP figure, but as a matter of fact, is a huge part of it. We are bankrupt, owing more than anyone on earth, and the GNP goes up. The more government spends, and the more it hires, the GNP will go up also. Every government spent dollar actually has a negative effect on our economy and fast disappearing freedoms.

Thomas Jefferson's most famous work was the Declaration of Independence, from which I quote. "…He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance…" That document continues, saying…"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government." Time will tell whether we have reached the point of no return, where government feeds on itself, taking our guns, making unlimited rules and regulations, and depriving us of any but a slave's existence.

Will someone or group of people stand up, win the confidence of the masses, and convince them that we are enslaved? Or are far too many of us "on the dole" in one form or another, or so illiterate, non thinking, or lazy that we will go down like every other civilization in history? Protect yourself.