Show i i i i j imi 1 x 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 m i 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 i 11 1 iii j It If Seems To Me MeRy Meny Hy Ry Joseph B B. B Roberta COP COPYRIGHT 1976 Contemporary Features Syndicate Inc It H is both foolish and dangerous to assume that we can buy our way out of oC the unemployment problem by pouring billions of good old Uncle Unde Sams Sam's magic dollars down the rat holes bf make make- work government jobs The widely supported even Jimmy Carter likes it Full Employment Employment Em Em- and Balanced Growth Act sponsored by Democrats Sen Hubert Humphrey and Rep Au Augustus ustus Hawkins proposes to do just that It would require the federal gover government nt to hire everybody who cant can't find a job in the private sector The plan would probably have havethe havethe havethe the opposite effect to the one intended Alth Although ugh it envisions th the government as the em employer employer employer of oC last resort it would put the government in competition competition com com- petition with the private sector Naturally the public service jobs which would provide no needed services to the public or orthe orthe orthe the government would pay well Whoever heard of a government job that didn't So not only would the flock lock to the government employment employment employment em em- offices but so would many of the employed who would prefer better pay and less work Thus thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of workers now performing menial but necessary functions in the private sector would quit their jobs Private businesses would then either have to compete with the government for workers by paying inflationary inflationary inflationary in in- salaries for menial jobs or eliminate th the jobs through automation or changing to to service self-service systems for their customers That the bill practically inflation inflation inflation in in- guarantees guarante s double-digit double has been pointed out by y its opponents and not denied by its proponents Their answer answer has been better inflation n th than n unemployment wJ which ch is silly because it would be impossible OJ I the government to employ ploy everybody who will be out of w work rk if f double-digit double inflation ret return returns The file more jobs the government n provides the 1 i greater the costs the greater the costs the greater grealer the drain drainon on the economy and the greater the drain on the economy the more jobs the government would have to provide Lets Let's consider some basic Ca facts ts The government is not a profit-making profit organization It depends ultimately for its support on the money earned by people and organizations in the private s sector that buy and sell goods and services in the free market When it goes in debt by spending more than its income it must borrow money from Crom the same financial sources the private sector borrows from thus competing with business and industry for this money The more it borrows the scarcer money becomes and the thel l higher gher interest rates go When it wants to lower interest rates it prints more dollars however the m more re dollars it prints the less its dollars will buy In short government deficit spending feeds inflation Further it stands to reason we cannot have a healthy economy economy unless many many more people are employed inthe in inthe inthe the private sector than are being paid by the government The argument that government employees pay taxes too too- is nonsensical in its implication No No government employee unless he works for nothing can pay enough taxes to provide his own salary It It takes a raft of supporting self-supporting tax-paying tax wage earners in the private sector to pay the salary of one government employee The proposal that we add millions of employees to the federal payroll is frightening We can lick the problem of unemployment but only by creating jobs in the private sector We can create new jobs by improving production and developing new industry Our guiding principle should be the proposition that every dollar doUar th the government takes from a business or an an individual whether it be by direct taxation or by indirect inflation is a dollar doUar less the private privat sector can invest in improving pr production and creating re ting new jobs It therefore follows that any proposal to reduce unemployment that will raise taxes or increase inflation must be self |