My "you can't be serious" level continues to rise as I hear Republicans clamoring for votes. At least Obama has some concrete ideas on how to create more jobs, such as green industries, infrastructure repair and investment in education. Romney seems to be an advocate of the "trickle down" effect of continuing to lower taxes for the wealthy so they can create more jobs, which doesn't seem to work too well.
But the latest interview I saw with Paul Ryan caused a severe spike in my disbelief. His vision for our future, if I perceived it correctly, entails the citizenry making investments and taking risks in business ventures, creating jobs and untold wealth. After all, isn't that what America has always been about? Individual enterprise, small businesses galore, and a bright future for our grandkids. And if our "risk" should fail, we, like someone he knew, can go back to college, take charge of his life, and experience huge success. And in his view, if I correctly understood, the only thing standing in the way of this bright future is big government. Government that takes our hard-earned money and gives it to lazy, parasitic people who neither work nor want to work.
Even if I did have money to invest in a business venture, (and how many of us lowly working folks do?) I don't think anybody could afford to buy my products, since I would be competing with giant global corporations paying children in China pennies a day to produce the same thing. Even if the government reduced all my taxes and permits and business licenses to zero, it still wouldn't offset the huge wage difference of the Third World. And this is just one glaring reality Mr. Ryan apparently overlooked.
With so many jobs going to Third World countries, and so many American workers being unemployed, how many can pay the college tuition for learning new skills, especially after having invested the remnants of their life savings in a business venture? A banker might loan us money for the exorbitant tuition, and we could incur a huge debt, like so many other college students have already done.
No, I think things have changed drastically with the new global economy. Unless the Republicans plan to put the unfortunate unsuccessful people on the proverbial iceberg and send them off to sea, government needs to play a part in this segment's well being.
Fred Dawson
Munday, W.Va.
