The attached link has me thinking of Alice in Wonderland and 1984 and seeing red. Seems the big guys, Wall Street, Hollywood, and Corporate Farmers, with former “public servants” representing them as lobbyists, snuck $76 billion in tax credits into the fiscal cliff bill. http://washingtonexaminer.com/tim-carney-how-corporate-tax-credits-got-in-the-cliff-deal/article/2517397#.UOc1a2_oRrA
Trent Lott and John Breaux took their “public service” and turned it into a multi-million dollar business paid for by us poor stiffs who actually spend most days providing real public service. Don’t worry, for their $100,000 retainer they will represent you also. But hey, what’s a poor ex public servant to do?
Real public service is what every business practices each day to stay in business. It’s listening to customers, providing a product that the customer wants at an affordable price, and not spending more than their business takes in. They live within their means and face real competition every day that requires serving their customers in a way that the customer voluntarily gives away their money.
Contrast that with what in pure 1984-speak we call “public service.” Promising products and services for a $1.00 that costs $1.40 to provide is no way to provide a service. Giving some customers the product for free and then gouging others based on their income is not a fair system. Imagine if your gas and your milk were priced based on your income? What company would expect people to pay that way? And when they couldn’t pay and revenue dropped, how many businesses would give themselves a pay raise?
So the next time you hear one of these intergenerational thieves opine that “there is no higher calling than public service,” remember that the REAL public service happens in the free market every day.