Too much government
Too much government
Last Sunday’s Tribune-Herald included the supplement titled “East Hawaii F.A.Q. Book,” a very useful tool for all Big Island residents.
In it was listed the Big Island’s 27 largest employers, and guess who completed the top three employers? Yes, it was the government. Again. Here are some extracts:
— (Gold Medal) State of Hawaii, 7,962;
— (Silver Medal) County of Hawaii, 2,630;
— (Bronze Medal) U.S. federal government, 1,429;
— Total government: 12,021.
This … results in a 50 percent ratio of government employees versus the private sector. (By the way, this percentage has been reducing over the past several years, when it was over 60 percent. That might be the good news.)
But then we should not lose sight of the fact that government produces nothing — zero goods!
On the same page in the supplement, the state Department of Business and Economic Development shows the Gross County Product (i.e., the value of all finished goods and services produced within the county’s borders) to be $5.4 billion for the year 2015. Unless someone corrects me, the government’s contribution to the $5.4 billion is zero!
Simple arithmetic, therefore, shows that 50 percent of the working people, who produce everything, pay the salaries and benefits of the 50 percent of the government employees, who produce nothing. Let us not forget, either, that the same 50 percent of working people also pay for the all the non-working people drawing benefits under the myriad of entitlement programs, which in so many cases are abused.
Whatever happened to one of the key principles on which this nation was founded: The role of government is primarily infrastructure and defense?
It would be refreshing if folks aspiring to future public office would make this issue No. 1 on their political manifesto.
Chris Tamm
Hilo
Good info
Mahalo, Norman Bezona, for the forward-looking “Tropical Gardening” article on Sept. 13, on how to face a future of a changing climate, warming oceans, and unstable wet and dry weather that will not only affect our personal landscapes, but whether we will be able to grow the crops needed to feed ourselves.
More information of this kind is sorely needed for our island communities to help people plan for an uncertain future in agriculture and flood and drought mitigation. Building resilience into food, fresh water and energy systems now will help our communities to thrive when the going gets rough.
Merle Hayward
Hilo