When economy sours, cut government

I just completed reading Loebman’s article in the April 14 Daily Herald about how the Republicans are driving us into a depression by overdoing the cutting of government spending, which will cause the firing of millions of government workers.

It seems that his view is that the government is the economic engine of our country and we can’t possibly deny them any funds to pay for public sector jobs like teachers, firefighters, police and government workers.

These are the facts he is missing.

The government creates no wealth whatsoever. It is just an entity that taxes, collects and redistributes monies that are generated mostly by the private sector. The private sector is what makes this economy go because it is driven by the companies and individuals who risk their own money or liability to produce and sell goods and services hopefully at a profit.

From this profit, the private sector pays most of the taxes that go to the government so public sector jobs can be initiated. Jobs like our teachers, firefighters, police and government workers serve at the pleasure of a healthy wealth producing economy.

These public sector jobs create no immediate wealth but are an extremely valuable and necessary part for the public good and are a strong investment in the future. However, when the funds are not there because the private sector is floundering, cuts to these jobs as well are necessary.

Has Loebman not noticed in the past three years that millions of private sector jobs have been lost? Entire companies, chain stores and small entrepreneurs have gone out of business, but I don’t hear too many people singing the blues for them — nothing they do is guaranteed. They have to be competitive — or they die.

Don Eliasek

Huntley