Economics- The Study of Choices
Many of you all are not Wisconsin readers. But perhaps you know about the situation facing the great cheese state? I'm not going to say my position, but I intend to share an article I found by a professor in my home state. If you're interested, read with an open mind. I definitely challenged myself to when reading this perspective.
Maybe you will learn from it no matter your own views on public issues. I know I did.
We used to make things here in Wisconsin.
We made machine tools in Milwaukee, cars in Kenosha and ships in
Sheboygan. We mined iron in the north and lead in the south. We made
cheese, we made brats, we made beer, and we even made napkins to clean
up what we spilled. And we made money.
The original war on poverty was a private, mercenary affair. Men like
Harnishfeger, Allis, Chalmers, Kohler, Kearney, Trecker, Modine, Case,
Mead, Falk, Allen, Bradley, Cutler, Hammer, Bucyrus, Harley, Davidson,
Pabst, and Miller lifted millions up from subsistence living to middle
class comfort. They did it - not "Fighting Bob" La Follette or any of
the politicians who came along later to take the credit and rake a
piece of the action through the steepest progressive scheme in the
nation. Those old geezers with the beards cured poverty by putting
people to work. Generations of Wisconsinites learned trades and
mastered them in the factories, breweries, mills, foundries, and
shipyards those capitalists built with their hands. Thousands of small
businesses supplied these industrial giants, and tens of thousands of
proprietors and professionals provided all of the services that all
those other families needed to live well. The wealth got spread around
plenty.
The profits generated by our great industrialists funded charities,
the arts, education, libraries, museums, parks, and community
development associations. Taxes on their profits, property, and
payrolls built our schools, roads, bridges, and the safety net that
Wisconsin's progressives are still taking credit for, as if the money
came from their council meetings. The offering plates in churches of
every denomination were filled with money left over from company
paychecks that were made possible because a few bold young men risked
it all and got rich. Don't thank God for them; thank them that you
learned about God.
Their wealth pales in comparison to the wealth they created for
millions and millions of other Wisconsin families. Those with an
appreciation for the immeasurable contributions of Wisconsin's
industrial icons of 1910 will find the list of Wisconsin's top ten
employers of 2010 appalling:
Walmart, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee Public Schools,
U.S. Postal Service, Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Menards,
Marshfield Clinic, Aurora Health Care, City of Milwaukee, and
Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.
This is what a century of progressivism will get you. Wisconsin is the
birthplace of the progressive movement, the home of the Socialist
Party, the first state to allow public sector unions, the cradle of
environmental activism, a liberal fortress walled off against common
sense for decades. Their motto, Forward Wisconsin, should be changed
to Downward Wisconsin if truth in advertising applies to slogans.
There is no shortage of activists, advocates, and agitators in this
State. If government were the answer to our problems, we would have no
problems. The very same people - or people just like them - who
picketed, struck, sued, taxed, and regulated our great companies out
of this state are now complaining about the unemployment and poverty
that they have brought upon themselves. They got rid of those old rich
white guys and replaced them with.nothing.
Wisconsin ranks 47th in the rate of new business formation. We are one
of the worst states for native college graduate exodus; our brightest
and most ambitions graduates leave to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Why shouldn't they? Our tax rates are among the worst in the nation
and our business climate, perpetually in the bottom of the rankings,
has only recently moved up thanks to a Governor who now faces a recall
for his trouble.
In 1970, the new environmental movement joined unions and socialists
in a coordinated effort to demonize industry. When I was in college,
the ranting against "polluting profiteers" was like white noise -
always there. They won, and here is the price of their victory: in
1970, manufacturers paid 18.2% of Wisconsin's property taxes - the
major source of school funding - and in 2010 those who remained paid
3.7%.
So who is it that caused the funding crisis in our schools and the
skyrocketing tax rates on our homes? It is the same ignoramuses who
are sitting on bridges, pooping on things, and passing around recall
petitions. The unemployed 26-year old in the hemp hat looking for
sympathy might look instead for some inspiration from Jerome I. Case,
who started his agricultural equipment business at the age of 21,
miraculously without an iPhone 4s.
Mr. Case got rich by asking people what they want and making it for
them. He did not get rich by telling people what he wanted and waiting
for them to do something about it. If you want to declare war on your
own poverty, memorize that.
In the last decade alone we have lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs in
this state - over 25%. And it's not just jobs that have been lost; the
companies that provided them are gone. Those jobs are not coming back,
no matter how long we extend unemployment benefits pretending they
are. The 450,000 people who still work in manufacturing in Wisconsin
are damn good it at, but we are now outnumbered by people who work for
government. A significant number of the latter are tasked with taxing,
regulating, and generally harassing the former. While it is true that
many manufacturers chased low-wage opportunities on their own, many
more were driven out of the state by the increasing cost of doing
business here.
It is a myth that unions improve wages. If you consider only the 1,000
jobs in a closed shop, you might think an average union wage is, say,
$30/hr. But if you add in the zero wages of the 10,000 jobs lost in
companies chased out by union harassment, the average of all 11,000
union workers is reduced to $2.72/hr. Do you know the average wage of
union iron miners in this state? Zero. And the left is fighting hard
to keep it that way in Northern Wisconsin - looking out for the
working man, they call it.
It is also a myth that free trade causes job losses. Over the past
three years, U.S. manufacturers sold $70 billion more goods to our
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners than we bought from them.
Conversely, we suffered a $1.3 trillion trade deficit with countries
where no FTA's exist. I doubt that kids are going to learn that in our
government-union monopoly schools - it doesn't fit the narrative.
No one wants to see another person suffer in poverty, and liberty is
the best economic policy there is. The great industrialists of
Wisconsin took less than a generation to lift millions up to a life of
dignity, pride, prosperity and good will. When enterprise was free and
government was limited, we all prospered.
Those great men of industry were not anointed at birth to be rich;
they rose from nothing to great wealth through their own hard work and
the value they added to their employees and their customers through
choice, competition, and voluntary exchange. That is the only sure
path to real prosperity; the debt economy is a temporary illusion.
Look again at the list of our famous industrialists and the list of
our current employers. Who would you wish your child or grandchild to
grow up to be? Who do you think will do more good on this earth -
Jerome I Case and his tractors, or the Coordinator of Supplier
Diversity at MPS.
If you chose MPS, then apply now - that job is open, and it pays up to
$72,000 plus benefits and early retirement. Go in peace and save the
world. Me, I'm going with the tractor guy.
-Tim Nerenz, PhD
Maybe you will learn from it no matter your own views on public issues. I know I did.
We used to make things here in Wisconsin.
We made machine tools in Milwaukee, cars in Kenosha and ships in
Sheboygan. We mined iron in the north and lead in the south. We made
cheese, we made brats, we made beer, and we even made napkins to clean
up what we spilled. And we made money.
The original war on poverty was a private, mercenary affair. Men like
Harnishfeger, Allis, Chalmers, Kohler, Kearney, Trecker, Modine, Case,
Mead, Falk, Allen, Bradley, Cutler, Hammer, Bucyrus, Harley, Davidson,
Pabst, and Miller lifted millions up from subsistence living to middle
class comfort. They did it - not "Fighting Bob" La Follette or any of
the politicians who came along later to take the credit and rake a
piece of the action through the steepest progressive scheme in the
nation. Those old geezers with the beards cured poverty by putting
people to work. Generations of Wisconsinites learned trades and
mastered them in the factories, breweries, mills, foundries, and
shipyards those capitalists built with their hands. Thousands of small
businesses supplied these industrial giants, and tens of thousands of
proprietors and professionals provided all of the services that all
those other families needed to live well. The wealth got spread around
plenty.
The profits generated by our great industrialists funded charities,
the arts, education, libraries, museums, parks, and community
development associations. Taxes on their profits, property, and
payrolls built our schools, roads, bridges, and the safety net that
Wisconsin's progressives are still taking credit for, as if the money
came from their council meetings. The offering plates in churches of
every denomination were filled with money left over from company
paychecks that were made possible because a few bold young men risked
it all and got rich. Don't thank God for them; thank them that you
learned about God.
Their wealth pales in comparison to the wealth they created for
millions and millions of other Wisconsin families. Those with an
appreciation for the immeasurable contributions of Wisconsin's
industrial icons of 1910 will find the list of Wisconsin's top ten
employers of 2010 appalling:
Walmart, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee Public Schools,
U.S. Postal Service, Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Menards,
Marshfield Clinic, Aurora Health Care, City of Milwaukee, and
Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.
This is what a century of progressivism will get you. Wisconsin is the
birthplace of the progressive movement, the home of the Socialist
Party, the first state to allow public sector unions, the cradle of
environmental activism, a liberal fortress walled off against common
sense for decades. Their motto, Forward Wisconsin, should be changed
to Downward Wisconsin if truth in advertising applies to slogans.
There is no shortage of activists, advocates, and agitators in this
State. If government were the answer to our problems, we would have no
problems. The very same people - or people just like them - who
picketed, struck, sued, taxed, and regulated our great companies out
of this state are now complaining about the unemployment and poverty
that they have brought upon themselves. They got rid of those old rich
white guys and replaced them with.nothing.
Wisconsin ranks 47th in the rate of new business formation. We are one
of the worst states for native college graduate exodus; our brightest
and most ambitions graduates leave to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Why shouldn't they? Our tax rates are among the worst in the nation
and our business climate, perpetually in the bottom of the rankings,
has only recently moved up thanks to a Governor who now faces a recall
for his trouble.
In 1970, the new environmental movement joined unions and socialists
in a coordinated effort to demonize industry. When I was in college,
the ranting against "polluting profiteers" was like white noise -
always there. They won, and here is the price of their victory: in
1970, manufacturers paid 18.2% of Wisconsin's property taxes - the
major source of school funding - and in 2010 those who remained paid
3.7%.
So who is it that caused the funding crisis in our schools and the
skyrocketing tax rates on our homes? It is the same ignoramuses who
are sitting on bridges, pooping on things, and passing around recall
petitions. The unemployed 26-year old in the hemp hat looking for
sympathy might look instead for some inspiration from Jerome I. Case,
who started his agricultural equipment business at the age of 21,
miraculously without an iPhone 4s.
Mr. Case got rich by asking people what they want and making it for
them. He did not get rich by telling people what he wanted and waiting
for them to do something about it. If you want to declare war on your
own poverty, memorize that.
In the last decade alone we have lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs in
this state - over 25%. And it's not just jobs that have been lost; the
companies that provided them are gone. Those jobs are not coming back,
no matter how long we extend unemployment benefits pretending they
are. The 450,000 people who still work in manufacturing in Wisconsin
are damn good it at, but we are now outnumbered by people who work for
government. A significant number of the latter are tasked with taxing,
regulating, and generally harassing the former. While it is true that
many manufacturers chased low-wage opportunities on their own, many
more were driven out of the state by the increasing cost of doing
business here.
It is a myth that unions improve wages. If you consider only the 1,000
jobs in a closed shop, you might think an average union wage is, say,
$30/hr. But if you add in the zero wages of the 10,000 jobs lost in
companies chased out by union harassment, the average of all 11,000
union workers is reduced to $2.72/hr. Do you know the average wage of
union iron miners in this state? Zero. And the left is fighting hard
to keep it that way in Northern Wisconsin - looking out for the
working man, they call it.
It is also a myth that free trade causes job losses. Over the past
three years, U.S. manufacturers sold $70 billion more goods to our
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners than we bought from them.
Conversely, we suffered a $1.3 trillion trade deficit with countries
where no FTA's exist. I doubt that kids are going to learn that in our
government-union monopoly schools - it doesn't fit the narrative.
No one wants to see another person suffer in poverty, and liberty is
the best economic policy there is. The great industrialists of
Wisconsin took less than a generation to lift millions up to a life of
dignity, pride, prosperity and good will. When enterprise was free and
government was limited, we all prospered.
Those great men of industry were not anointed at birth to be rich;
they rose from nothing to great wealth through their own hard work and
the value they added to their employees and their customers through
choice, competition, and voluntary exchange. That is the only sure
path to real prosperity; the debt economy is a temporary illusion.
Look again at the list of our famous industrialists and the list of
our current employers. Who would you wish your child or grandchild to
grow up to be? Who do you think will do more good on this earth -
Jerome I Case and his tractors, or the Coordinator of Supplier
Diversity at MPS.
If you chose MPS, then apply now - that job is open, and it pays up to
$72,000 plus benefits and early retirement. Go in peace and save the
world. Me, I'm going with the tractor guy.
-Tim Nerenz, PhD
Comments
Post a Comment