Delaying the pain

Why to parents allow their children to get shots?  No one likes to see their child in pain but those that choose to vaccinate do so because they believe that the shots will ward off a potentially far worse disease or illness.  Government over the past many years has not owned up to the fact that as a country we need to take our medicine and unfortunately the longer we put things off the more painful the recovery.

I recently saw the following headline from CNSNews.com

“Labor Dept. Attempts to Stop Layoffs by Giving $100 Million to States to Subsidize Payrolls”

This so-called “work-sharing” legislation was passed as part of the payroll tax deduction and unemployment extension bill that was passed by the house and senate before being signed into law by the president.  Under this program employers pay their full time employees for part time work and the government bridges the gap between this part time pay and their full time pay.  How does such a program help anyone over the long term?

As I have attempted to emphasize in a number of posts, I am not in any way minimizing the human cost.  All of those who might be laid off would be a huge and unpleasant upheaval in their lives.  I would argue, however, that these people would be in a much better place in the long run if they were employed in productive areas of the economy.  This plan, if implemented, will just distort the economy and pull resources away from

Time and time again governments attempt to legislate their way to prosperity – how ridiculous.  Instead they should stand aside and allow the free markets to work.  There will be pain as necessary adjustments are made, however, the growth a truly free market could bring would elevate us all to a higher standard of living.