Redneck Review
No. 52 4/18/2016
Wow! With this Review, I am beginning a second year on this project, and I must admit I feel like one who has a "Tiger by the Tail.!" Don't dare let go, and can not long hang on!
The "Tiger" at this moment is the controversy over minimum wage laws, and it is obvious that anyone who dares challenge the idea is not politically correct!
But, folks, that is why I started this project, now exactly one year ago. In this land of the free, it was simply my intention to pass along to newer generations the thinking that one tends to find in some older gents like myself, approaching 79 years of age!
Hey! On the matter of low wages, it is certainly my concern that many modern young families are struggling almost desperately to make a living. I have grandkids in that spot myself. And what about my fellow retirees who are finding their retirement pensions and social security benefits slowly losing purchasing power? And believe you me, it is going to get far worse! One example can help substantiate this claim!
I went to Carroll College, a private school in Helena in 1955 for a total of $990 that first year. That included my tuition and board and room. My book costs were minimal! I must repeat, $990 that first year! And around 1962, a student of mine at SGA applied to the same school, and did not get in because of the large number of "baby boomers" who had applied and been accepted. Had that student been accepted, his cost total for that year, seven years after I entered, had risen to a $1100!
I could spend several articles analyzing the impact of the new Federal Aid to Education program that began in the early 1960's, sold to us by a benevolent federal government to help deal with the baby boomer bulge in students entering college about then. No time to do that here, but it is fact that the same college today charges about $30,000/year! And costs of all institutions, private and public, have risen at about the same rate.
No federal aid in 1955, no student loans either, simply no need! Whereas today's student coming out of college averages about $35,000 in debt! A debt which must be faced as the grad enters the labor market! Progress? Not in my mind! And the scary thing is that the monetary forces which have fueled these higher prices are much more out of control today! Nineteen trillion dollars of U.S. debt! Guess what a college year will cost 60 years from now! A real hair raiser! It is my blunt contention that Federal aid to education and the corresponding huge federal deficits year in and year out are to blame!
Just how did we get to this point? It is my contention that it can be traced back to a slow erosion which replaced all responsibility on the individual with a belief that somehow our banking and government experts can control things, and create a more secure world for all. Bluntly, relying on the theories of Keynes in economics and socialism in government, these experts promise to create for us a better world, with universal medical care, free education and a higher standard of living! But can it happen, and is it working?
Maybe compare the progress made here in our first 200 years, with the problems we face today! Why not compare the old system which rewarded the industrious and put pressure on the individual to care for oneself! And why not compare allowing employers to set wage rates based on employee ability with rates set by the mandate of "experts!" Why not?
Jake Wren

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