LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Big government, big business by CCTA Chairman, Nancy Murdoch

May 18, 2012

It’s in vogue for big business and corporations to be bashed by the president, Democrats and liberals. Why don’t they share the same contempt for big government? Corporations and businesses provide jobs. The businesses themselves often pay corporate taxes and the individuals within the company pay taxes, as do their shareholders. Large corporations voluntarily provide money to build hospitals, help the poor and needy, and donate to worthy causes. Foundations are created by wealthy people of business to provide scholarships for students, promote the arts, fund school programs, and help communities.



On the other side of the coin is big government. As Ronald Reagan said in his 1981 inaugural address, “We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around.” Steadily, though, we are changing into a government that has a nation.


In 2009 a public sector worker averaged total income (salary and benefits) of about $61,000. The same government worker earned $123,000, plus great job security. Right after the stimulus while the public sector lost 2.5 million jobs, the federal government gained 416,000. It seems as if the largest percentage of jobs “created or saved” were government ones, or those of green energy companies that have since gone bankrupt, owing the taxpayers millions of dollars. In 2006 the Department of the Transportation only had one employee earning more than $170,000 per year; now it has 1,690. Last year a number of White House employees received raises ranging between 17-86 percent. When was the last time you received a raise that large?


Does anyone really think any of these government jobs will go away? Wasteful and lazy employees still get paid, doing what it takes to ensure job security, and taking luxurious vacations on our dime. Government entities are motivated to spend all or more of their budget or it might get cut next year, and to hire as many people as possible.


The demagoguery of bashing big business may make good political sound bites, but how wise is to rip into those who are paying the salaries of those in government? Some big businesses like GE are in bed with the government; it’s working out nicely for them as they outsource American jobs and ingenuity to China while avoiding paying taxes. Crony capitalism is far more common than the free market.


Companies with bad business practices soon pay the consequences, but rarely have enough power to affect the average person’s life. The monopoly of government has the potential to inflict tyranny upon its citizens. Nowhere in history has a huge, powerful government worked out well for the man on the street in the long run.


Nancy Murdoch, Havelock, NC