Are We All to Be Poor Like Mississippi?

My wife’s family is from Louisiana, and prior five generations and now our children maintain the farm. Louisiana has enjoyed the distinction of being the second poorest state in the union, with Mississippi being the only one poorer.
Being intimately familiar with the poverty of those two neighboring states, you can imagine my surprise when I read in the Wall Street Journal the other day that “the average Japanese is now poorer than the average citizen of Mississippi.”
Forty years ago when I was an economics major in college, I routinely read of how Japan had grown very prosperous through sound economic policies that were unleashing the natural talents of their people.
How did Japan go from consuming 18 percent of the world’s production (GDP) to 9 percent today? How did this intelligent, applied, forceful nation fall so far so fast? The answer is, after the property and stock bubble in 1990, their government began the longest and most expensive stimulus program in history.
Their government now owes twice as much as their nation produces in a year, and government spending, which had been at 26 percent, now taxes close to 40 percent of everything produced.
China on the other hand has cut taxation. In 1978 the Chinese government consumed 31 percent of the nation’s production but by the early 2000s had cut it to barely 11 percent, and they are now booming. Germany has cut government spending and its economy is again growing.
So what about us? Do we want a government that gets out of our way and out of our pockets so we can earn a living? Or do we want a government that thinks it is their job to tell us what to do at every turn and charge us for it? Historically it was said, “The business of America is business.” The larger government grows, the less the people can produce under the weight of evermore-oppressive government.
So what type of an economy do we want at the local, county, state and federal level? Do we want light regulation so we can be free to think, invest and work, and light taxes so our investments and our work pay off?
The type of economy we get depends upon the type of people we put in office. If we desire to build upon the principles which were the traditional strength of America, we need to put into office candidates who support those principles.
The choices are not difficult to understand. In our recent election for governor, there was a stark difference between the candidates. Jon Corzine stated clearly that he believed in big, progressive government as being the best thing for the people.
Chris Christie believes in small government as ultimately the best thing for the people. Idealistically I side with Corzine except it doesn’t work; as Margaret Thatcher stated, Socialist governments “Always run out of other people’s money.”
So if you, like me, are a small government person, let’s find out who the small government candidates are, and elect them on Nov. 2.
History has shown us that the economic rules for government are the same as the rules for the household. It is a simple matter of common sense and frugality. People who spend their money wisely thrive, and the big spenders usually end up in the poor house.
Art Hall, publisher