The last two weekends have brought us two excellent statements by the Publisher of the Record-Bee on the subject of our current economic crises. It is a crisis and things must change as soon as possible to put America back to work.
Many folks simply will not pay the price necessary to produce things in this country.
They want to make good wages but buy products made in places that pay workers next to nothing and have few environmental safeguards if any.
We cannot expect domestic producers to resist taking production elsewhere if people will not pay the price of domestically produced goods. It is a case of move or go out of business because sales are lost to cheaper sources.
Americans must buy goods produced by other Americans! You will not have as may customers for our local wine, pears walnuts etc. if people do not have the money to buy. Since much manufacturing is done in states other than ours, it is easy to have a disconnect between our two sources of commerce thus making it easier to justify the purchase of a foreign made car, for example.
Many do not realize the vast amount of jobs created by a manufacturing operation. Not just the jobs in the actual factory, but also at suppliers for parts and all the various services needed.
The circulation of money in any community from the wages earned is multiplied many times over. Locally and nationwide manufacturing jobs pay better than average in most cases. This provides tax revenue to all levels of government. I think that both the state and national government must, at least for a time, cut red tape, eliminate as much regulation as we possibly can and get out of the way of business so we can get back on our feet.
We have a country rich with resources that are unavailable to most other countries that must import many of the materials, minerals and energy needed to sustain manufacturing. We should exploit this advantage to the maximum to get our people back to work and keep our money here to restore prosperity to our land.
Darryl Smith
Kelseyville
