The Free Press, Mankato, MN

September 8, 2010

Your View: We ask businesses to carry too large a load

By Bill Cutts, Sr., Mankato

— Kudos for the Aug. 31 headline “Businesses pay dearly for layoffs.” A splendid example of the legislation passed by our legislative bodies containing fine print almost completely clouded by the much ballyhooed and misleading title of said bills.

An employer paying into a so-called insurance program for 20 years, only to discover what he thought he was paying for was not, and he must foot the bill again. Business becomes accustomed to this type of trust and one would expect our politicians to operate in a similar manner. Not so.

This is an example of, what I believe to be, a major cause of our current economic problems. Namely, politicians and we, as a people, are our own worst enemy by believing we can send money to our state or nation’s capital and expect to get it back in the form of security.

We are asking business to carry too large a load to finance our “social programs.” By necessity, business must pass added taxes, cost of manufacturing and cost of manufacturing restrictions on to us, the consumer, in the form of increased product prices in order to show a profit. Profit, a word completely abhorred by our socialistic friends, is what makes the wheels go around.

Much of our manufacturing business has discovered they can profit by moving to foreign lands where environmental and other requirements are not as restrictive and expensive.

Have we reached the point, as has Greece, where we can become a so-called “Third World Country” caused by our own desires to “have it all” by driving business out of our country and spending future generations’ money?