Letters from Linden
by JACK LINDEN
The radio entertainers and the Republicans in Congress along with the locals are screaming about President Barack Obama’s proposal to create jobs in America. The general cry? That the government has never created a job. I don’t know what world these people live in or on what planet they exist, but it is certainly a denial of reality.
What about the local police? What about other city, county or state employees? Those citizens driving around in parks and working in local facilities are not employees of a private corporation. Those judges sitting on the bench and hearing all those cases are not part of a fraternity which charges the lawyers before them. The all-inclusive term “the government” seems not to apply to those people who we elect every so often and call our neighbors.
Another frequently overlooked aspect of the government creating jobs? What about the parks we enjoy? Many of those parks were first created by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930s. Those campgrounds in the national parks were created by the government and, for that matter, are run by the government.
If you think that the government has not created jobs, you may want to research how places like Phoenix and Los Angeles survive. You will find a small structure known as the Hoover Dam that holds back the Colorado River and eventually supplies those and other cities with electricity. That little structure was built with government money and expertise.
Some would argue that World War II would have lasted longer had it not been for the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That is debatable, but assuming that it is true, how was the science developed to create the bombs? The basic mechanics of the bomb were created under the bleachers of Stagg Field in Chicago. The final creation of the bomb took place in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, because of the water power that had been harnessed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, another product of the jobs created by the federal government. The final development of the atomic bomb took place in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a secret city developed and paid for by the federal government.
In more modern times, who among us has traveled outside our hometowns and enjoyed the interstate highways? Some of us remember driving on the two-lane highways, behind those semi trucks going up grades and relishing the day when we could pass. That highway system was developed by the federal government under a republican president. How can anyone drive on those highways and say that the federal government doesn’t create jobs? Even many of the expressways in cities and counties would not have been built without 90 percent of the cost being funded by the federal government. Even overpasses in Buda and Kyle have benefitted from funds from the Federal Government.
I am amazed by this machine on which I am writing this article. Yes, it was built by a private corporation but where did the development of the computer begin? In some laboratory paid for with federal dollars and the salaries of the employees by grants from that same government. The entire concept of the internet system was developed for military use, not for civilian. Where would the world be today without the internet and all the different aspects of it?
So the government doesn’t create jobs? It may not be the innovator, but certainly the government created the groundwork for the internet today.
I wonder where states such as Texas, Florida and California would be were it not for the space program. Would Houston be the city it is without Johnson Space Center? Would Cape Canaveral, Florida be the tourist spot without the jobs that were created by the federal government? Check out the space related employment in California to see how “government can’t create jobs.”
One could go on and on just elaborating on how much our lifestyles have changed because of programs and jobs created by the federal government. For those of you who think that jobs weren’t created, you live in an imaginary world.
