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Bob
writes in ..... Downward
Wisconsin
We used to make things
here in Wisconsin .....
We made machine tools in
Milwaukee , cars in Kenosha and
ships in Sheboygan . We mined
iron in the north and lead in the
south. We made cheese, we made
brats, we made beer, and we even
made napkins to clean up what we
spilled. And we made
money.
The original war on
poverty was a private, mercenary
affair. Men like Harnishfeger,
Allis, Chalmers, Kohler, Kearney,
Trecker, Modine, Case, Mead,
Falk, Allen, Bradley, Cutler,
Hammer, Bucyrus, Harley,
Davidson, Pabst, and Miller
lifted millions up from
subsistence living to middle
class comfort. They did it - not
Fighting Bob La Follette or any
of the politicians who came along
later to take the credit and rake
a piece of the action through the
steepest progressive scheme in
the nation.
Those old geezers with
the beards cured poverty by
putting people to work.
Generations of Wisconsinites
learned trades and mastered them
in the factories, breweries,
mills, foundries, and shipyards
those capitalists built with
their hands. Thousands of small
businesses supplied these
industrial giants, and tens of
thousands of proprietors and
professionals provided all of the
services that all those other
families needed to live well. The
wealth got spread around
plenty.
The profits generated by
our great industrialists funded
charities, the arts, education,
libraries, museums, parks, and
community development
associations. Taxes on their
profits, property, and payrolls
built our schools, roads,
bridges, and the safety net that
Wisconsin’s progressives are
still taking credit for, as if
the money came from their council
meetings. The offering plates in
churches of every denomination
were filled with money left over
from company paychecks that were
made possible because a few bold
young men risked it all and got
rich. Don’t thank God for them;
thank them that you learned about
God.
Their wealth pales in
comparison to the wealth they
created for millions and millions
of other Wisconsin families.
Those with an appreciation for
the immeasurable contributions of
Wisconsin’s industrial icons of
1910 will find the list of
Wisconsin’s top ten employers of
2010 appalling:
Walmart, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Milwaukee
Public Schools, U.S. Postal
Service, Wisconsin Department of
Corrections, Menards, Marshfield
Clinic, Aurora Health Care, City
of Milwaukee, and Wisconsin
Department of Veterans
Affairs.
This is what a century
of progressivism will get you.
Wisconsin is the birthplace of
the progressive movement, the
home of the Socialist Party, the
first state to allow public
sector unions, the cradle of
environmental activism, a liberal
fortress walled off against
common sense for decades. Their
motto, Forward Wisconsin, should
be changed to “Downward
Wisconsin” if truth in
advertising applies to
slogans.
There is no shortage of
activists, advocates, and
agitators in this State. If
government were the answer to our
problems, we would have no
problems. The very same people or
people just like them who
picketed, struck, sued, taxed,
and regulated our great companies
out of this state are now
complaining about the
unemployment and poverty that
they have brought upon
themselves. They got rid of those
old rich white guys and replaced
them with nothing.
Wisconsin ranks 47th in
the rate of new business
formation . We are one of the
worst states for native college
graduate exodus; our brightest
and most ambitions graduates
leave to seek their fortunes
elsewhere. Why shouldn’t they?
Our tax rates are among the worst
in the nation and our business
climate, perpetually in the
bottom of the rankings, has only
recently moved up thanks to a
Governor who now faces a recall
for his trouble.
In 1970, the new
environmental movement joined
unions and socialists in a
coordinated effort to demonize
industry. When I was in college,
the ranting against polluting
profiteers was like white noise,
always there. They won, and here
is the price of their victory: in
1970, manufacturers paid 18.2% of
Wisconsin’s property taxes the
major source of school funding -
and in 2010 those who remained
paid 3.7%.
So who is it that caused
the funding crisis in our schools
and the skyrocketing tax rates on
our homes? It is the same
ignoramuses who are sitting on
bridges, pooping on things, and
passing around recall petitions.
The unemployed 26-year old in the
hemp hat looking for sympathy
might look instead for some
inspiration from Jerome I. Case,
who started his agricultural
equipment business at the age of
21, miraculously without an
iPhone 4s.
Mr. Case got rich by
asking people what they want and
making it for them. He did not
get rich by telling people what
he wanted and waiting for them to
do something about it.. If you
want to declare war on your own
poverty, memorize that.
In the last decade alone
we have lost 150,000
manufacturing jobs in this state
over 25%. And it’s not just jobs
that have been lost; the
companies that provided them are
gone. Those jobs are not coming
back, no matter how long we
extend unemployment benefits
pretending they are. The 450,000
people who still work in
manufacturing in Wisconsin are
damn good at it, but we are now
out numbered by people who work
for government. A significant
number of the latter are tasked
with taxing, regulating, and
generally harassing the former.
While it is true that many
manufacturers chased low-wage
opportunities on their own, many
more were driven out of the state
by the increasing cost of doing
business here.
It is a myth that unions
improve wages. If you consider
only the 1,000 jobs in a closed
shop, you might think an average
union wage is, say, $30/hr. But
if you add in the zero wages of
the 10,000 jobs lost in companies
chased out by union harassment,
the average of all 11,000 union
workers is reduced to $2.72/hr.
Do you know the average wage of
union iron miners in this state?
Zero. And the left is fighting
hard to keep it that way in
Northern Wisconsin - looking out
for the working man, they call
it.
It is also a myth that
free trade causes job losses.
Over the past three years, U.S.
manufacturers sold $70 billion
more goods to our Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) partners than we
bought from them. Conversely, we
suffered a $1.3 trillion trade
deficit with countries where no
FTA’s exist. I doubt that kids
are going to learn that in our
government-union monopoly schools
it doesn’t fit the
narrative.
No one wants to see
another person suffer in poverty,
and liberty is the best economic
policy there is. The great
industrialists of Wisconsin took
less than a generation to lift
millions up to a life of dignity,
pride, prosperity and good will.
When enterprise was free and
government was limited, we all
prospered.
Those great men of
industry were not anointed at
birth to be rich; they rose from
nothing to great wealth through
their own hard work and the value
they added to their employees and
their customers through choice,
competition, and voluntary
exchange. That is the only sure
path to real prosperity; the debt
economy is a temporary
illusion.
Look again at the list
of our famous industrialists and
the list of our current
employers. Who would you wish
your child or grandchild to grow
up to be? Who do you think will
do more good on this earth Jerome
I Case and his tractors, or the
Coordinator of Supplier Diversity
at Milwaukee Public
Schools.
If you chose MPS, then
apply now that job is open, and
it pays up to $72,000 plus
benefits and early retirement. Go
in peace and save the world. Me,
I'm going with the tractor
guy.
Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.
Wow Tim this was great
and thank you for sending this in
..... it shows the absolute
reality of what the US Government
has done catering to themselves
and special interest groups to
include the Banks.
But we left that Hell
Hole (US) years ago and the only
reason why we say anything about
what is going on there today is
because it is the ONLY country in
the world that taxes people based
on citizenship and hence open to
our criticism.
No matter where I go in
the world and live I MUST file
and pay taxes to the US Feds,
though I receive no benefits
whatsoever ..... or possibly face
the Gestapo beating on my door in
a Foreign Country for rendition
to another foreign country to be
tortured or possibly Guantanamo?
..... therefore I feel since I
pay taxes and get no benefit I
take the benefit to smash them
the best that I can for there
crimes against us all.
The only bright side to
all this, if there is such a
thing, is that if they do not
have a LEGAL WARRANT HERE,
OBTAINED FROM THE COURTS HERE,
FOR A CRIME I COMMITTED HERE, I
CAN AND WILL SIMPLY SEND THEM
BACK TO HELL IN A BOX WHERE THEY
CAME FROM WHEN THEY TRY TO ENTER
MY HOME, because I still have the
right to do so here - to defend
my home and property against any
illegal intrusion foreign or
domestic ..... the US has become
hell since the Sheeple have been
complacent in letting the
Government at all levels walk all
over them - destroying so called
God Given and unalienable Rights
as outlined in possibly the
greatest document ever created in
world history - the US
Constitution.
By leaving the US I have
permanently and legally given
myself and my
family opportunities that
allow them and myself to escape
high income taxes ..... break
away from expanding
Unconstitutional Government
regulations ..... most
importantly protect our personal
liberties and privacy...and
secure the lifestyle we value -
Freedom, Liberty, and Justice for
All.
Sound
Familiar?
Those opportunities DO
exist in the right places
overseas today which are
several in which to
choose.
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