This page was last updated on July 7, 2011.
The real job killers; Alfonso Saahir; Beaver County Times; July 7, 2011.
In two previous letters [“Look to the Constitution,” 2/27/05; “Muslims are obligated to pray,” 12/1/06 (I didn’t critique them.)] from Mr. Saahir, he appeared to believe American Muslims weren’t being treated fairly. I would have included links to the letters, but the Times changed its website and material published before late-August 2009 is no longer available.
In the first letter, Mr. Saahir asked, “Is there any case history where American Muslims have committed any ‘terrorist’ attacks against the U.S. government?” Bad question, Mr. Saahir. In the days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar murdered two officers at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait and wounded 14 other soldiers, the result of his gunfire and throwing hand grenades into a tent where the soldiers were sleeping. In his diary before the murders, Mr. Akbar wrote, “I may not have killed any Muslims, but being in the Army is the same thing. I may have to make a choice very soon on who to kill.” Mr. Akbar was found guilty and sentenced to death. It happened again on November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, TX. We also need to remember Islamist attacks thwarted over the last several years, like the planned attack on Fort Dix, NJ, in 2007 by the “Fort Dix Six.”
Other letters from Mr. Saahir are here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Lest we forget where this monster growth of high unemployment took birth.
“Remember when corporate America coined the term ‘downsizing,’ using fewer employees to get the same amount of work done?”
[RWC] Regardless of the terminology, I’ll go out on a limb and guess businesses have been downsizing (and upsizing) for millennia. How many employees lost their job with the invention of the wheel or when someone figured they could domesticate animals and use them to pull plows, carry stuff, et cetera? How many Pony Express riders lost their job because of the telegraph?
“Employment became less, while employees were asked to continue to get the same amount of work done with fewer people.”
[RWC] Automation and other technological advances couldn’t have had anything to with “get[ting] the same amount of work done with fewer people” could it? Probably not. <g>
“So employers asked, why hire more people when we can make record profits using fewer people? This type of thinking has help [sic] to create some of our high unemployment.”
[RWC] This may come as a shock to some folks, but the goal for most businesses is to maximize income for the owners, not to provide jobs or generate tax revenue. If firing some employees will increase profit for a business, it will likely fire some employees. If hiring more employees will increase profit for a business, it will hire more employees. Ignoring the occasional short-term special situation, businesses that hire/keep more employees than they need are headed for failure. If you think a business likes to fire employees, you never had to fire anyone.
Samuel Gompers was the father of the American labor movement, founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and AFL president for 38 years until his death. Mr. Gompers once said, “The worst crime against working people is a company that fails to operate at a profit.”
“Now, some in Congress want us to work until we are older. While we are working longer, what work will younger people be doing?”
[RWC] This is already the case. Original Socialist Security recipients were eligible for full benefits at age 65. Depending on your year of birth, eligibility for full benefits already goes up to 67 years old.
As for “what work will younger people be doing?”, there’s this thing called an expanding economy that happens when excessive government interference doesn’t sabotage us.
“Oh, they will be unemployed.”
[RWC] Since the unemployment rate was 4.4% (Around 5% is considered “full employment.”) in May 2007, apparently all the stuff Mr. Saahir wrote about happened since then.
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