Free Market Watch - January 2010

Oranges Without the Trees!

by Mike Montandon

    Is it possible to be anti-business but pro-jobs?  Imagine a small island with a community of people living on it.  This community and their economic system are based on the production of oranges.  The community has a democratically elected two party system of government that is full of leaders elected on the platform of protecting oranges and increasing their production.  

    One of the political parties describes itself as very pro-oranges; however, this party is anti-tree.   Throughout the legislative session these politicians enact laws that restrict the number and height of trees, they order the removal of trees from areas where there are endangered grass slugs, they limit the amount of water a tree can get, they regulate the amount of nutrients a tree can have, they even limit the amount of sun a tree can get.  The entire time this political party regulates trees they promise their constituents that they are pro-oranges.  These leaders were elected to increase the yield of oranges, yet they spend their time attacking trees.  

    Clearly, the town needs trees if they want oranges, and if they want lots of oranges they are going to need lots of trees, the bigger the better!  It seems ridiculous that the people on the island believe an anti-tree but pro-oranges platform could work.

    Let’s bring this analogy back to reality.   There are many politicians elected in our state and country who are clearly anti-business, yet they promise they are pro-jobs.  These politicians consistently attack business and believe that growing the size of government will solve all problems.  

    The private sector is better suited to create jobs than the public sector.  Successful businesses create jobs; big government regulates, legislates, and taxes thereby destroying and adversely impacting job creation.  More importantly, successful private sector businesses ensure the most basic freedom of private property thereby providing liberty and paving the way for the pursuit of happiness.  It is easy to see why some of our career politicians think government should lead the way in job creation; there whole life the government has been their employer.   

    In the fight for public opinion, democrats demonize successful businesses with labels like corporate big-business, Wall Street big-bonuses, or greedy.  When scanning the liberal agenda it becomes hard to find business promoting ideas, yet easy to find populist rhetoric criticizing business.  Look at this again: All the money in the governments recent $800 billion economic stimulus is going to government programs. This is NOT pro business. There was not even a tiny little tax incentive to encourage private job creation or business investment.  Carefully looking at the issue of the day underscores how congress fails to be pro-jobs because of their anti-business approach.  

    Despite record unemployment rates democrats are focused on healthcare.  Given the economic realities facing our state and nation it is curious that the central focus of our state’s most powerful politicians is not on jobs but healthcare.  Even more curious is that according to the U.S. Department of Labor the healthcare industry has added over 600,000 new jobs since the recession began.  It appears that not only is the administration and congress unwilling to address the current unemployment problem but they are focused on dismantling and rebuilding one of the Nations most successful job creation sectors.  According to the Congressional Budget office Congress’s healthcare bill will only have a “small” effect on jobs, this vague measurement demonstrates that an anti-business approach to healthcare results in an anti-reality to jobs.  

    Healthcare legislation provides one example of the great liberal lie that you can be pro-jobs but anti-business.  This latest assault on business has been disguised as an admirable attempt to provide healthcare to our nations poorest.  With great care, and the help of elitist media outlets, liberals continue their attack on the foundation of the privet sector.  Imagine you are back on the island, and during one of the worst yields of oranges in recent memory the politicians decided to take one of the highest producing areas of the orchard and remove all the trees and replant them in different ways and places according to orchard planting plans used unsuccessfully on other islands.   This is exactly what is happening in America.  Democrats are committed to dismantling and destroying 1/6 of the economy, and then rebuilding it based on government run healthcare plans that have been unsuccessful in every country that has tried them.

    The major legislative issues of the day are a blueprint for an anti business foundation.  Healthcare, Cap and Trade, taxing the wealthy, taxing businesses, and Global Warming are all anti-business positions.  With millions of Americans out of work and a record numbers of families struggling to make ends meet, our leaders are not focused on jobs but on distractions, not on solutions but platitudes, not on the calamities facing Nevada but on party platforms, not engaging in practical solutions but engulfed in partisanship.  Our leaders need to focus on creating jobs through a pro business platform.  Just as trees produce oranges, businesses produce jobs.  When someone is anti-tree they are by default anti-oranges, or in other words when leaders attack business they are by definition anti-jobs!

Mike Montandon
Mike Montandon is the former mayor of North Las Vegas.