Materials, machinery and manpower.
According to the old-line economists, those are the areas that make up any business.
Those are the areas where you can make cuts when the time comes that you must cut.
And every long-term business will experience times when there must be cuts. Life is just that way.
No business graph is just a solid, unchanging, up-hill line.
While private enterprise understood that long ago, it seems like our government “leaders” are still trying to learn the lesson.
Or are they?
Maybe that is the problem.
They are like kids who cover up their ears and go “la-la-la-la-la” loudly so they can’t hear the truth they don’t want to know.
As has been obvious for years now, there is a huge difference between what local government has learned and what the “higher” levels are still ignoring.
This past week, Sedgwick County officials have announced they get it, and they are putting money where their mouths are. They have announced that the state’s second largest county will offer an early retirement plan to encourage a reduction in the county’s work force, and its payroll.
Is that the choice that we’d all like to see? Probably not. But back in the 1980s and 1990s, the Kansas private sector wasn’t crazy about the staff cuts that were made in almost all sectors, yet they got made because the economy forced it.
For the luckiest people, the changes were made as Sedgwick County is handling things and layoffs were not required. But the cuts were made and they stuck. We have never turned back, and apparently we never will.
The deal changed for private sector workers.
Were they happy?
No.
But that’s life.
It’s life for the public sector too, and our “higher” level government officials would do well to learn a lesson from the real world local leaders who are actually acting like leaders.
Take a moment to thank them, folks.
— Chuck Smith