Government Loans

The following article assailed government loans to business.

Loan Program Wrong

by Mark A. Laughlin

Charles Carpenter's letter criticizing the government loans to Ehman, Inc. probe for, but never find the fundamental error of this arrangement.

The fundamental issue is whether the government should be involved in subsidizing business at all. Do government officials have the right to decide how to dispose of our property? Do government officials know best how to invest our earnings?

Any person who understands the nature of man and the rights of man must answer both questions with an emphatic "NO."

Most people in the state of Wyoming could figure how to serve their own best interest by saving their own money, investing their own money, or spending their own money. Each case will create jobs. The saver and investor's money is used by bankers and entrepreneurs to help deserving businesses. Even the spendthrift will create jobs by buying something...something that someone must make, and most importantly, something he, the spender, wants!

The government seeks to give the appearance of "creating jobs" by making jobs very visible. It is kind of like the pyramids_the pharaohs, who confiscated the wealth and energies of their subjects for their leviathan "job creation" program. I suspect those subjects would have preferred to have spent their energies on supplying their own needs.

On a fundamental level, the Wyoming Economic Development program is an unadulterated evil.

But Mr. Carpenter makes a grievous error in accusing Ehman, Inc. of taking "from the Wyoming work force by way of taxes for low-interest loans." The Wyoming government already stole that money from taxpayers. And ultimately we permitted it with our (the voter's) shortsighted, unprincipled support for meddling politicians and bureaucrats.

Ehman, in effect, recouped some of that loot. Ehman, as a business, is hampered by the way state taxation affects savings and hence available investment capital. We cannot expect Ehman to refuse state money because the program is wrong and immoral.

To say that Ehman, as a matter of principle, must not accept state assistance would mean ultimately that only those without principles would be permitted to benefit from state assistance; i.e., the good must sacrifice for the sake of the sake of evil. The contradiction lies with the economic development program itself, not with Ehman's acceptance of state loans.

It is important to understand that business loans should be earned based upon the penetrating eye of the bank loan officer pouring over financial data, and not chumming and schmoozing with state bureaucrats.

Ehman should pursue state money, but we must also seek to shove those meddling bureaucrats out of our economic affairs.

I, too, hope to see the "indigent work force" of Wyoming rush to the pools. I hope to see all business have a non-existent relationship with the state government. No more frittering away of our wealth, Mike Ehman's included. A business climate where Ehman, Inc. can expand. A principled state government that is unnoticed by everyone except criminals.

Lets not waste our time hacking at the branches of evil, but instead begin chopping at its root.