The Packerton Yards government project

Dear Editor:

Did you know in a free market capitalistic society the government does not own any part of the private sector and does not put rules and regulations on businesses?

In a fascist society, businesses are still privately owned but the government tells them under what conditions they can operate. In a communist society, the government both owns the businesses and sets the rules for how they are to function. Doesn't the latter sound like the scenario for Packerton Yards?

We are told the project does not cost the residents of Carbon County anything. Well, besides destroying a historical landmark, where does the grant money come from? Is there a money tree in Harrisburg and DC that I am not aware of where all of this wonderful grant money comes from?

Well, with the way the Federal Reserve prints money one might think so, but NO it comes from us. Governments do not create wealth. They make a ton of laws to generate revenue enforced by agents wearing badges and carrying guns. And then they redistribute it. Sometimes these looted funds even get doled out to a group of officials who say "Build a business park on a toxic floodplain and they shall come!"

In the past few years we've seen the government involved in everything from roller and ice skating rinks to ballparks to retirement homes to car companies and yes, even to business parks in the Packerton Yards. And unlike the private sector if this project fails who loses their home and their life savings?

I'll give you a hint: it is not our elected officials who decided to gamble with your money. It is YOU! Your taxes go up even higher than they already are and the home you supposedly own is taken out from under you to pay for your government's voracious appetite. And then the Federal Reserve will continue to print money to finance the next lame brain idea so they can just dump it out of a helicopter onto the next government run project doomed for failure! And if your money is not being used here in Carbon County on the Packerton Yards it is most certainly being used on some other project like a tunnel for turtles in Florida courtesy of the Stimulus Bill.

But then some poor sap in Berks or Chester County has to fork it up for the Yards. Then realize this is happening all over the country and you can see why we are in the mess we are in. And who is going to say stop if you and I don't?

Would Henry Ford have revolutionized the automobile industry if he was instructed by the government to do so? I highly doubt it. Freedom is what drives innovation and production and creates jobs not grant money and elected officials. Do we learn nothing from history? How about current events?

Didn't the financial collapse happen in Greece happen because 60 percent of the workforce was made up of government employees and only 40 percent private sector workers? And then when the government ran out of the private sectors money what happened? The public sector clamored they wanted more?

Sound familiar? Can you say Wisconsin?

The problem with socialism is eventually the government runs out of other people's money. I believe the government should stick to fixing sidewalks, filing documents and running a court based on constitutional law not case law and other perversions.

Valerie Norato

Jim Thorpe