February 29, 2012

Apparently Mr. MacKay failed to see the irony in his editorial
column of February 23 regarding limited government vis-à-vis
the recent Caterpillar deal. His basic premise is that had it not
been for extensive government involvement in the process the
deal would have never happened. That may be, but what Mr.
MacKay fails to realize is that the results of the extensive
government involvement was to minimize the very barriers to
business entry that government creates in the first place.
Basically, big government helped get big government out of
the way. If someone breaks your legs are you supposed be
appreciative when they hand you crutches?

In order to entice businesses to relocate, local governments
are compelled to minimize one of the biggest barriers to
relocation: property taxes. If we already know it’s a barrier
why not just eliminate the barrier instead of engaging in
wasteful political games that picks winners and losers. Without
property taxes, industry would be beating down the door to
get into Georgia. Without property taxes the employed would
be able to demand higher wages. I realize this begs the
question “how would government replace property tax
revenue?” – for an extended answer please see
http://goo.gl/pLvhx – short answer: head tax.

Instead of praising big government for helping to remove the
anti-business barriers that big government creates, why not
just eliminate those barriers once and for all so we have a
smaller government that doesn’t get in the way in the first
place.