BCT Editorial – 11/27/05

This page was last updated on November 28, 2005.

Wreckage, Part II; Editorial; Beaver County Times; November 27, 2005.

This editorial is full of socialist lingo and slant.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“We’re stuck in the 1950s, when every economic expert, from those in Washington, D.C., to those in the local barbershop chair, could see nothing but growth.”

[RWC] If “every economic expert … could see nothing but growth” in the U.S., they weren’t very good experts. All the signs were there for everyone to see even in the early 1950s. By the late 1950s, you were either blind or did not want to see the signs.

“We had an industrial nirvana. Working-class people could make a good living without leaving town, without investing time and money in an education.”

[RWC] How many people are not “working-class people?” To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never met someone who didn’t work for a living.

“Fast-forward to reality.

“Not one single expert has come forward with a post-industrial recovery plan.”

[RWC] Plenty of “experts” have proposed “recovery plans,” but socialists ignore any plans that don’t rely heavily on socialist principles. In any case, central economic plans like that imagined by the Times always fail. The best economic plan is to minimize taxes, government spending, and unnecessary regulations while increasing economic and personal freedom.

“What do you do in Youngstown and Aliquippa when the mills are gone? Youngstown tried a jail-town plan, which had some limited success. But that’s not enough to draw money and bodies into Youngstown. Aliquippa, too, now has a jail next door. Is the plan to turn every once-bustling Rust Belt town into a mini Alcatraz? Is the plan to let those left behind, those who are the poorest, least educated and often, minorities, create their own islands of alternative society?”

[RWC] I don’t know about Youngstown, but Aliquippa didn’t go looking for a jail. First, it’s in Hopewell Township, not in Aliquippa. Second, the only reason it’s not in Beaver (as was the old jail) is that the folks in Beaver felt they were too good to house the new jail.

“For years, economists believed that money taken out of one industry would pop up in another, right here in America. A fine theory, but it didn’t account for globalization.”

[RWC] Earth to socialists, so-called “globalization” isn’t anything new. It’s been with the U.S. since the 13 colonies. The editorial is correct to a point, however. Far too many of people who should have known better ignored the effect of worldwide competition. They chose to believe the post World War II monopoly position of the U.S. would continue indefinitely.

“Many Americans are willing to work. What work can they do that will bring a living wage? Surely, in the decades since our greatest growth, some expert has pondered the answer.”

[RWC] Remember, “living wage” tends to be socialist code for a wage/benefit package far above a job’s true economic value.