A couple of weeks ago I expressed considerable satisfaction about the failure of Atlanta to attract the NASCAR museum that would have been financed by “public” funds. Since then I have had a number of conversations with people about the whole question of government subsidizing of private enterprises. So, here are some more thoughts about the subject of government funding of private industry.

First, there is no such thing as government money. Government seldom creates wealth. It only takes wealth from the pockets of the workers. Wealth, money, is created by the production of goods and services by working Americans. If you are building houses, cleaning offices, working on an assembly line or doing any other valuable work, you are creating wealth. The problem is that you are not allowed to keep it.

The only wealth in America is built by the hands, backs and minds of American workers. Government creates no wealth, They just reach into our pockets and take the wealth we create by our labor. Currently, in one form of tax or another, they take about half of the money we create. Since we create the wealth, we ought to have the right to determine how it is spent.

Therefore, I believe that all government spending on non-essential projects must be subjected to a public referendum. Since it is our money, we deserve an opportunity to approve or disapprove such spending. That includes such things as museums and business incentives.

We also deserve a chance to approve or disapprove any and all tax increases. At a minimum, any tax increase should require a super majority of the legislature, or even better, put it on the ballot and let the people who create the wealth decide how it is to be spent.

Do you realize that the bloodiest war we ever fought was about taxes? That’s right. The War Between the States was not about slavery, It was about taxes. Here is why.

In 1860, the year in which the final straw was added to the camel's back, the central government was being financed by a very unfair tax system. Every product moving in and out of our ports for international trade was subjected to an excise tax.

The South, being an agricultural area, depended on trade to market our products and obtain needed manufactured goods. The preferred markets were in Europe. Our products brought better prices and the manufactured goods we needed were better made and better priced from European manufacturers.

The northern based businessmen did not make any effort to compete with the price and quality of Europe. Rather, they used their dominance in the federal legislature to create protective tariffs. As a results, the South was paying up to eighty percent of federal taxes. And most of that tax money was spent in the North in the form of infrastructure and supplements to Northern businesses. (See the book “For Good and Evil” by Charles Adams, chapter seven.)

Abraham Lincoln’s number one campaign promise was to double the tax from twenty percent to forty one percent. The new Congress did not wait for him to take office. They voted for the increase late in the year, creating the rebellion of the heavily taxed southern states.

We fought the most bloody war in our history over tax and spend politics. We lost. Since then Congresses, state and federal, have never hesitated to rip the money out of our pockets and spending it any way they wish. But while we lost the war, many of us are still fighting and will never stop...After all, tomorrow is another day.

Copyright © 2006 by Frank Gillispie
frankgillispie@charter.net, Hull, GA