U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne all but said it; economic developers have said it: If you want a job in the United States, there is a job available for you. But that's the problem. We've got too many people who don't want a job because they are better off sitting at home letting the government take care of them.
On Jan. 20, 1961, Democrat John F. Kennedy issued his inaugural address with the famous words “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Let those words sink in and think about what our newly-elected president was saying in 1961.
“We now have more jobs available in America than we have people looking for jobs,” Byrne told an audience Tuesday afternoon in Brewton.
I talked with an economic developer recently who said there were more than 700 jobs available in Escambia County, Ala., alone.
So, why is unemployment still hovering around 4 percent and why do we spend billions of dollars on programs such as food stamps, WIC and welfare? If we've got all these jobs available, why aren't people working to support themselves instead of having the government and our tax dollars support them?
As you get older, some things slip your mind but other things get imbedded. It may have been 20 years ago, but I remember sitting in one of these town hall meetings in Atmore. I can't remember who the guest of honor was but I do remember the speech made by Hooper Matthews. Matthews told either a U.S. Senator or a U.S House of Representative that neither he nor most of the people he supplied Pepsi products to could hire people to work for $10 per hour. He said they'd hire them, but once they got their first pay check and saw what the state and federal government took out of those checks for taxes they could make more money sitting at home on their butts drawing a government check.
Why work if somebody who is working is giving you money? It's a lot easier sitting at home and watching for the mailman to bring a check.
I've always said that there is a cruel reality that we have two types of people in this country: tax payers and tax liabilities. You either put money into the taxes or you are draining money out. At the rate we continue to go more and more gets drained out faster than money going in. It's like trying to to fill the kitchen sink without a plug in the bottom.
We hear a lot about 'entitlements'. Well what working people are entitled to is the money they have put into the Social Security and Medicare fund. I got one of those updates from the Social Security Office a few weeks ago and I started contributing when I was 15 years old. I'm now 60. Granted, I didn't make but about $200 when I was 15, but I paid taxes.
I get irritated when I hear people say welfare is an entitlement. No, it's not. Welfare programs like food stamps, WIC and housing supplements were designed as a safety net to catch people from falling to the bottom in bad times. They were never designed to be life-long revenue sources.
I remember when the Century prison first came in. They offered free classes to train correctional officers who would start out making about $18,000 per year with state benefits. They filled the first class, but nobody showed up for the second. It was easier to sit home and get a check or applicants were scared of the drug test.
The reality is many of the so-called 4 percent unemployed really don't want to work. You couldn't give them a job on a silver platter.
Rep. Byrne noted that an untrained workforce is partially to blame and noted that President Trump recently signed a bill to allocate about $1.2 billion to states for workforce development. Bottom line, if you want a job you can find a job. If you have the work ethic and are willing to show up for work and do your job, you will be trained to do that job. Provalus in Brewton will train you for a job if you have that work ethic.
My personal feeling is that if the taxpayers are going to help people long term, it needs to be limited to the elderly and the handicapped.
I think it was Ronald Reagan who said communism would come disguised as socialism and if we are not careful, that's where we are headed.
