By Bradley Harrington
“A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.” — Robert Heinlein, “Methuselah’s Children,” 1958 —
Wyoming’s “Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming” (ENDOW) bill was signed into law by Gov. Matt Mead back on March 3, and — now, as its first step of operation — its 25-member Council has recently been turned loose to solve our “economic diversity” issues:
“As part of the ENDOW Initiative Executive Council’s first meetings Thursday and Friday at Laramie County Community College, the group identified a number of those potential impediments to growth. It also assigned committees to tackle the problems.” (“ENDOW council identifies impediments to economic diversification,” WTE, May 13.)
And what, in this council’s opinion, would those “problems” consist of? “The council broke into three groups to identify a slew of barriers to achieving its goals … Some of them included: Building a qualified workforce; developing transportation and infrastructure; improving the quality of life in Wyoming communities; and working with policymakers and residents averse to change.”
And this council’s objectives, once these “problems” have been “identified”? “To oversee the development and implementation of a blueprint for economic diversification in Wyoming through the next 20 years.”
Keep in mind, as you read those sentences, that an “economy” is defined as the aggregate sum of all the individual transactions made by all the involved people in a certain geographical area — and that, in a free society, excepting criminal activities, those transactions are all voluntary in their natures (the “private” sector).
Also observe that “growth” consists of something that has gotten bigger, richer, more widespread or otherwise increased its scope by one form or another.
And, finally, it bears mentioning that government (the “public” sector) has no resources of its own, that it exists solely by virtue of the wealth it has plundered from the wider economy surrounding it — and that consequently it can only forcibly SHIFT resources never actually CREATE them.
ENDOW Council member and Wyoming Business Council President Bill Schilling, however, has a different view: “The council’s task of building on existing industries and creating new ones is ‘critical to the state’s future,’” he said.
Nor is that opinion isolated, as it is obviously shared by most if not all of the ENDOW Council’s other members, else why would they be on the Council in the first place?
In discussing the “problems” identified by the Council at its meetings, for instance, Council Co-Chairman Greg Hill said that “What we’re trying to do is formulate an action plan on some of those areas … It’s easy to generate business growth. It’s a lot harder to think about those difficult issues.”
Really, Mr. Hill? If it’s so “easy” for government to “generate business growth” –which we’ve already seen is impossible — perhaps you’d care to inform the rest of us stupes as to just what magic wand you plan on waving that will allow you to violate Natural Law?
Completely ignorant of such facts of reality, however, Hill merely continues: “I think what’s missing in all this,” he said, “is a strategy and plans.”
No, Sir, what’s “missing” is an understanding of the manner in which an economy actually works — and the realization that all “growth,” by definition, originates in the private not the public sector. Instead of letting a free people produce as they see fit for private profit, thereby enriching all of us, your “plan” is to slap a top-down, Soviet-style command and control over our entire productive sphere (“the development and implementation of a blueprint for economic diversification”).
Nor are such gross misunderstandings regarding economic production limited to this ENDOW buffoonery — for it is government’s soaring involvement and control over our entire energy economy that created this whole mess to begin with.
And if you don’t think that’s true, consider our federal Dept. of Energy: With 93,000 employees and an annual budget of $27.9 billion, this agency has never actually produced one erg of energy in 40 years, but HAS successfully stifled true energy production in more ways than this column has the space to discuss.
And now, in the face of such national disasters, our state government proposes the creation of yet MORE government spending and controls: “Included in those [ENDOW] recommendations will be policy measures, likely leading to requests for state funds for different projects.”
And there you have it, Dear Reader, the true motive for all of this gobbledygook: MORE taxes, MORE government employees and MORE restrictions on our freedoms to produce.
And, just in case you realize this and decide to oppose it, stay tuned for a re-education program of massive proportions, as ENDOW bureaucrats fan out across the state to “work” with you and other “policymakers and residents averse to change.”
And, should the state’s minions succeed in that effort, you can kiss both your job and your “quality of life” goodbye.
Bradley Harrington is a computer technician and a writer who lives in Cheyenne. Email: bradhgt1776@gmail.com.
