| I would like to invite you
to a T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) Party and what I am referring
to as a Plunger Rebellion. Please join me and bring a protest sign
against higher taxes and a plunger. Why a plunger? Because things
are backed up and we have a big mess on our hands! The event will
be held on April 15 at 5:30 pm in the Mervyn’s Parking Lot
in Santa Maria located at Broadway and Cook. By the way, I am also
inviting owners of diesel equipment to bring their now worthless
equipment to the rally so people can see what wasted capital investment
looks like. We live in trying times.
We are being tempted to risk our economic freedoms in exchange
for a mirage of economic security. We will end up with neither
freedom nor security if we don’t make some hard choices
right now. The truth is we can’t tax, borrow or print enough
money to get us out of this jam. We must simply suffer through
some tough choices.
America has been living beyond its means for
a very long time and has cut itself off from the very economic
activity it needs in order to recover. Greed in the corporate
world and amongst organized labor, coupled with unbridled consumption
patterns by consumers buying houses they can’t afford and
relying upon maxed out credit cards for everyday living expenses,
along with government entitlement giveaways with no securities
to pay for the same, well, no wonder we have problems!
The flip side of having run up bills and commitments
we cannot afford to pay is our artificially constrained ability
to generate new wealth and related tax revenues via the creation
of new products, development, and increased industrial and manufacturing
output. Opportunity is constrained by the double blow of government
fiat and environmental activism. To put it another way, some of
our own people are pirating as much money as they can from a sinking
ship, while other forces in our society continue to poke holes
in the ship. The ship cannot help but sink taking many innocent
lives, i.e., those who are living within their means and are not
milking the system for all its worth, along with it.
I believe it is high time that we take a stand
and hope that our society as a whole comes to its senses. We can
no longer afford to reward corporate executives with exorbitant
salaries and bonuses while they run companies into the ground
in order to realize short term profits. Relatedly, shareholders
need to restrain their urges to fire these same CEO’s who
don’t deliver dividends which actually exceed the true earnings
and value of the company. Government and private sector unions
can no longer expect returns and guarantees for pensions that
exceed the routine fluctuations of the stock market. The ability
of individuals and families to incur debt of any kind must be
tied to, and have a ceiling based upon, their actual earning capacity.
The basic ingredients of wealth creation are
economic freedom; property rights, market based capital opportunities,
and entrepreneurial spirit. As a society, we must roll back the
attitudes, regulations and prohibitions impeding economic growth.
Extreme environmental policies that prohibit the use of property
and the development and use of natural resources must be rescinded.
Excessive taxation and regulation that promotes capital flight
and does not reward investment, must be eliminated. And to fuel
our recovery, artificial constraints prohibiting our ability to
create necessary water and energy supplies, housing stock and
infrastructure must be removed.
Please join me on April 15 at Mervyns. I will
be armed with hope, petitions, and a plunger.
Andy Caldwell is the Executive Director
of COLAB and a 40 year resident of the Central Coast. For contact
information, visit the COLAB website at www.colabsbc.org
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