President Obama had finally realized that government cannot solve the current jobs crisis. He is demanding that the private sector get busy and start creating jobs. Well, he can't just demand jobs from the private sector. He has to get government out of the way so that they have a chance to succeed.

Look, the purpose of the economy is to create and distribute goods and services. In order to do that, business has to be able to provide goods and services at a competitive price. As long as the cost of domestic production remains so high, business has no choice but to go outside the nation to low cost societies to obtain merchandise to sell.

So what does a potential manufacturer run into when he tries to set up a business for the production and distribution of domestic goods and services? His first challenge is to figure out how to deal with the massive, punishing tax programs. It cost any business a significant amount of their available funds hiring accountants and advisors just to deal with taxes.

If the private sector is to create jobs, then the tax code must be greatly reduced and simplified. That includes eliminating all payroll taxes and switching to some form of consumption tax so that imported goods pay the same taxes as domestic.

The same thing applies to government regulations. Any businessman will have to spend many dollars just to comply discover and comply with these often senseless regulations. Businessmen are confronted with page after page of regulations, many of which make no sense other than giving government bureaucrats something to do.

For example, our federal government has decided to get into the cigarette naming business. A recent ruling says that cigarette companies can no longer call their products "Lite" or "Mild." As a result tobacco companies have had to spend huge amounts of money to redesign their packages, and advertising. So if you are a smoker, and you want a milder flavor cigarette, you have to order it by color. Most full flavor brands are in red packages. Mild or Lite flavors come in gold boxes, and ultra-lites are in pastel or white boxes. But none of them can call themselves "Lite."

If you go to a hardware store to buy a ladder, it will be covered by government mandated labels warning you of every obvious safety hazard involving ladders.

Then, of course, businessmen have to deal with government supported unions which also drive up prices.... For most companies, it is not practical to produce goods in America. So they buy goods from China, Korea, or other unregulated and untaxed economies.

As President Reagan once said, "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem." And the problem has only gotten worse.

Copyright © 2011 by Frank Gillispie
frank@frankgillispie.com, Hull, GA