PENNIES EARNED

 

Is there one penny of governmental revenue that does not somehow originate in business?

Obviously, the answer is no.

At any level of government, from sewerage district to the federal establishment, business earnings pay all the bills (or build the debt), directly or indirectly. Yet, how often does a politician cite that basic tenant of government finance?

Seldom, if ever, it would seem.

Even truly non-profit enterprises, such as charities, raise money from people who have it. They pay salaries, which in turn are taxable. For-profit organizations sell products or offer services or combine both for money derived from customers, who get their money from working or from inheritance. But even inherited money had to come from work-produced income sometime.

Thinking caps can come up with no source not connected somehow with business. Even treasure uncovered from the earth or dredged from a sunken galleon somehow had to be derived from licit or even illicit work that was somehow taxed.

So does this mean entrepreneurship and business enterprise are always good. Again, obviously, not. Leaving criminality aside, not all legitimate businesses are ethical. That, also, is a given. Government has a place to oversee administration of justice in keeping business honest.

Elected and appointed governmental officials at all levels often show no acknowledgment of the true source of public revenue. How could they when they ignore deficits and debt in running – or ruining -- the machinery of government?

We citizens will get no relief from the oppressive governments we unwittingly have put into place until we demand through the ballot box our due.

Partisan politics has not been conducive to providing the commonweal. But we are stuck with it. Thus, we must pick and choose between candidates, regardless of the party flag they fly, to find those truly willing to work for the good of all rather than for a career slurping business-produced revenue for their personal egos.

Workable government, even if it might require more revenue, is dependent upon the golden egg of private enterprise. Protecting the goose is everyone’s concern. But force feeding the goose for political foie gras is not right, either. All that’s needed is to recognize that the healthy goose keeps laying eggs if permitted to range relatively free.