It Is Business That Drives The Economy And Adds The Jobs, Not Government

Some of you will remember the comic strip called Pogo. Pogo was a Possum, and this particular time he was sitting under an umbrella, in a boat down in the Okefenokee Swamp talking with Albert the Alligator. Now, Albert was the Mayor at that time, as I recall, and he was talking about what a great job he was doing, and Pogo said what have you done lately. Whereupon Albert sticks his hand out from under the umbrella and says: "It's stopped raining, ain't it?" Pogo replies: "You didn't make that happen." And Albert shoots back at him: "But it happened during my administration."

I'm always reminded of this cartoon when somebody in government, Republican or Democrat, claims credit for a good economy. I well remember James Carville chiding Bill Clinton's staff people when Clinton ran, and won. Said Carville: "It's the economy, stupid." We had a good economy and Carville wanted Bill Clinton to take credit for it, and he did, and won. Then the other day President Bush was talking about how robust the economy is right now. An Associated Press story on the same page talked about the unemployment rate going down, and payrolls going up. The same story noted 2-million jobs had been added in 2005, but that was not as many as the 2.2-million added in 2004.

Now it's true the government affects the economy. High taxes, heavy-handed regulations, blocks to international trade, interest rates ... things like that definitely affect the economy. But I would like to suggest to politicians on both the right and the left that the economy is the function of a competitive, free market, free enterprise system, and that the health of the economy and the addition of jobs comes about because somebody down here in the heartland of America, your neighbor and mine, is taking a risk and providing a service and hoping for a modest profit. Certainly business gets slammed
when things don't go well; it seems to me they should get a little bit of the credit when the economy is good.

This is Gordon Sawyer, and may the wind always be at your back.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/2/116975