Government versus business

Not every action taken by government should be vilified.

We've been influenced like Pavlov's dogs to believe "business good; government bad." (The major bad government exception I've noted in my life is the state's and Crow Wing County's almost criminal mishandling of child parenting and welfare issues!)

The call is made (by those with dollar signs in their eyes) that all things should be left to business, for profit motives.

In the early 1970s my wife and I traveled to New Jersey to visit friends. From Chicago to the East Coast, the air was just cloudy with pollution. When we finally made it back to the clean air of the Wisconsin rural countryside, it was such a relief it brought tears to my eyes.

This was at the time when rivers were so dirty with pollution that not only did fish not live in them, but sometimes they'd catch on fire. (The rivers, I meant. Although maybe if fish had lived in them, they might have caught on fire, too. What an invention: self-cooking fish!)

I remember reading about one such river in Ohio, where they had floating fire rigs stationed there just to put out fires on the water. (Cuyahoga River, 1969) Some real "Smoke on the Water" there.

Business reaped no profits in cleaning the air or the water; in fact, the dirty air and water were caused by business sucking profits out of the environment meant for everyone and everything.

It took government to clean the air and water. Business didn't do it.

People don't understand "profits." When you have a business, you first pay all your materials, labor and an appropriate reward for yourself. After everything is paid, what you have left are profits.

These frequently indicate you've overcharged your customers, or underpaid your employees.

A. Martin

Merrifield