Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 2-14-19 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, February 14, 2019 Editorial & Opinions
Serving “The World’s Fruit Basket” since 1891
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION
During World War II, the Nazi propaganda machine — under the direction and leadership of one Joseph Goebbels — believed that the bigger the lie and more often it was repeated increased its believability. Goebbels bore the title of Reich Minister of propaganda. His success with shaping the thinking of the Ger- man people was undeniable and his prowess at such is renown.
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
Community input may be welcome in proposed 4-way stop signs on G Street
QUOTE
“Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.”
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
Since that awful period there has been a
collection of jokes dealing with the subject of
the world’s biggest lie. Whatever your answer
might have been to that one, it has been supplanted by the biggest whopper ever told in modern day America. “Diversity makes us stronger and immigration makes us more prosperous.” One will often hear that line being espoused by our mainstream media with- out an iota of data which would support such a pronouncement. If anyone is in possession of any information which would support that position, now would be a good time to speak up.
One need look no further than California for an example of what a swelling illegal immigrant population can do to an economy. We have become the number one state in the union in terms of poverty. One has no better example than our own Valley cities for reference. That is, in no way, intended to denigrate these immi- grants. One can’t blame them because they are unable to compete for, not fill, jobs that provide a path upward in the American eco- nomic system. I blame the politicians who use them for political advantage.
Roughly 40 percent of the entire country’s 11 to 20 million im- migrants now call California home. This is a state where one in four were not born in the United States. Further exacerbating the problem is the fact that there is little or no attempt to assimilate or learn the English language. We are becoming a collection of tribes. That is a position which is tacitly being encouraged and supported by government regulations and directives.
One must have a greater grasp of facts in order to make a more realistic appraisal of whether or not diversity makes us stronger and immigration makes us more prosperous. Truth is that we are reaping the “benefits” of the uncontrolled migration wrought by about three generations of massive influxes of poor and impov- erished.
If the people of this country truly believe that we need more under-educated, low income workers which would result in a per- manent underclass, we would prefer they tell us so instead of prof- fering lies about how we benefit from their presence. Equally im- portant is a universal knowledge of the unintended consequences which come with illegal immigration.
Another example, in our opinion of being spoon-fed large doses of a big lie would be the recently released New Green Deal. Any- one who has read this”vomiting of garbage” by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York realizes it sounds more like a lecture or dissertation by a college professor than a sensible document. Beyond assigning virtually every part of our lives to the control of politicians and bureaucrats in government, it pro- vides cradle-to-grave support — including a government educa- tion — for everyone even if they refuse to work at a job to care for themselves.
One doesn’t have to be an accounting or economics major to realize that it won’t take long to run out of other people’s money to support those who refuse to accept any responsibility for them- selves. This added form of socialism will certainly exacerbate an already extreme problem created by open borders. What greater magnet can there be than when everything is free, including medi- cal?
Want to know something that makes this even more scary? There are already at least 64 Democrats who have asked that they be allowed to sign on to this as co-sponsors. Not frightening enough? At least four of those people who profess their belief and support of this have already announced they intend to seek their party’s presidential nomination for 2020!
How is it possible that anyone as naive, uninformed and unedu- cated win an election to such a high office and enjoy such a syco- phantic, adoring audience? Somehow Ocasio-Cortez has become the poster child for the future of the Democratic party. The head of the Democratic National Committee has already pronounced her as such! Obviously the young congresswomen has tremendous support from the media partners of that political party. Although there were indications beginning on the horizon, I had no idea that this was where the Democrat party was headed back when I voted for John F. Kennedy.
If one didn’t know better, there would be a tendency to swear that the original lie was invented in California politicos — or may- be it’s just that our politicians, bureaucrats and political advisors have perfected prevarication to the point it is almost an art.
Let’s start with High Speed Rail. That was a lie which was so inventively sold to California voters that it was approved on a bal- lot. It’s been nothing short of a mess and a boondoggle ever since. This big lie has caused us to throw money down a rathole on a project which is neither feasible nor desirable.
Propositions 47 and 57 were both major lies which were foisted on the voters for approval by disguising their true intent. These did nothing but release criminals back on the streets of California. Voters even turned down a repeal of an onerous gas tax in the last election because of a lie in Sacramento in the wording of the issue as it appeared on the ballot. A lie can be spread halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
If you caught the spirit of com- munity involvement because of the recent debut of the monthly Town Hall meetings in Reedley, you can share more of that spirit by attend- ing one of the next two Reedley City Council meetings.
That’s because the council could vote to approve a move that will affect everyone driving and walking along G Street — the installation of four-way stop signs at the intersection of G and 8th streets and G and 12th streets. At the Feb. 12 meeting, the council voted 3-1 (Mary Fast opposed, Anita Betan- court was absent) to send back to city officials plans to draft a resolution ap- proving the four-way stops.
It’s safe to say that there’s likely to be a divided opinion in the com- munity about whether this is a good or bad idea. It was split among the council and city officials — a major- ity so far have expressed the need for safety and the ability for drivers on the side streets and pedestrians to
see oncoming traffic on G Street. But Fast has sided with the city’s Traffic and Safety Commission, which is against adding signs that could fur- ther tie up traffic flow along G Street.
The added stop signs would mean five consecutive intersections along G Street that are traffic controlled, from 8th to 13th streets. Three of them would be stop signs along with the traffic lights on 10th and 11th streets. No doubt, there will be con- flicting views on the situation.
But that’s how government works, and you, the public, has the opportu- nity to make your voice heard dur- ing public comment at the meetings. If we can’t let you know in our print issue in advance about the agenda item, we’ll try to get it posted on our Facebook page or other social media.
As for the Town Hall meetings? With the short month of February, it’s almost time for the next gathering at the Reedley Community Center’s Se- nior Room. The Monday, Feb. 25, meet-
ing at 6 p.m. will discuss economic development. Take the time to go and participate in the feedback process.
••• Another big up-
coming community
event is the Great-
er Reedley Cham-
ber of Commerce’s awards gala, hon- oring nine category winners including the 2019 Citizen of the Year in Danny Jimenez. Danny has been valuable to The Exponent and the community with his contributions shooting sports events for Reedley High School.
In addition, the late Pam Melville will be inducted into the Hall of Fame for her four-decade long contribu- tions to downtown and two decades of service with the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission. She’s greatly missed, and a fitting choice to honor her legacy.
Fred Hall
Jon Earnest
The folly of minimum wage laws
By Mark Hendrickson
Guest columnist
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed raising the legal minimum wage to $12 per hour on July 1, 2019, and then an additional 50 cents per year until the minimum wage reaches $15 per hour in 2025.
Laws mandating a minimum wage have ex- isted without interruption since the federal Fair La- bor Standards Act of 1938. So habituated have we be- come to this form of gov- ernment intervention that when a politician like Gov. Wolf proposes to mandate a higher minimum wage, few people bother to ques- tion whether government is competent to rule on what a proper wage is.
Neither government of- ficials nor committees of experts that they assemble can possibly process as much information as free markets provide through the forces of supply and demand to determine what wages should be. This is one of the fundamental er- rors of socialism (take note, Bernie and Alexandria)— namely, the presumption that government planners have enough wisdom to overrule markets and set prices. Alas, the woeful re- sult of such hubris is that by supplanting the pric-
ing mechanism that brings supply into balance with de- mand and thus coordinates economic activity, economic production becomes uncoor- dinated, irrational, and cha- otic, leading to impoverish- ment (see Venezuela).
Advocates of minimum wages might retort that there are normative issues here that take precedence— that it isn’t “just” or “fair” that an employer pay an em- ployee (even one who is ea- ger to work at a low wage) less than their arbitrarily chosen minimum. Those who clamor for higher mini- mum wages are completely free to pay higher wages to anybody they choose to em- ploy. But what gives them the right to tell somebody else how much they must pay for something? Let me give an example.
Let’s say that an enthu- siastic supporter of higher minimum wage laws has fallen in love with Tesla automobiles and wants to buy one. Now let’s pretend that Tesla is on the brink of bankruptcy, and that if it goes out of business, a number of Americans will lose their jobs and means of self-support. Using the logic of the minimum wage law, government should in- tervene to raise the price of Teslas to improve Tesla’s profitability and preserve those jobs. Do you really
Other Opinions
want the government tell- ing you how much you have topayforacar(oratwhat price you must sell your house, or in any other way interfere in the transactions you hope to make)?
And what would happen if the government ordered higher prices for Teslas? If you answer, “Fewer would be purchased,” you get to sit at the head of the class. This is Economics 101: higher prices tend to reduce demand. That is exactly what happens with mini- mum wage laws. Yes, the income of some minimum wage workers (emphasis on “some”) goes up; for oth- ers, though, it goes down, sometimes all the way to zero, as employers com- pensate by reducing hours of some workers and laying off others. This isn’t just economic theory. In New York City, where the legally mandated minimum wage rose more than 15 percent on Jan. 1, a New York City Hospitality Alliance survey found that 75 percent of restaurants intended to re- duce employee hours and 53 percent responded that they would eliminate some jobs. A higher minimum wage is the last thing those adverse- ly affected workers needed.
Wolf is proposing to re- duce the income of some
workers and push others into the unemployment line so that others may benefit. What is so fair or just about that? And where this in- sidious process really gets ugly is that raising the legal minimum wage hurts black Americans a lot more than white ones. This disparate impact is a gross injustice that mocks our civil rights laws and indeed the Consti- tution itself.
I am all in favor of higher wages. However, ill-conceived, counterpro- ductive, and ultimately un- fair government interven- tion like Wolf’s proposal is not the way to accomplish that desirable goal. The economic way—the only way to achieve sustainable increases in earnings and standards of living—is to allow markets to work. Pur- chasing power increases as two market forces come into play: higher productiv- ity of labor and increased demand for labor, both of which are driven by market competition.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s pro- posal would hurt many inno- cent Pennsylvanians. That is indefensible.
Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economic and social policy with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City (Pa.) College.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Vaccinating the homeless
I am a resident of the community. I went to the first of six Town Hall meetings held by the city manager and police on Jan. 28. This meeting was regarding the homeless situation in Reedley. Very well-attended, infor- mative and good input from folks.
I praise the city for all their hard work while being “sensitive to a tough situation.” However, I couldn’t quit thinking about the immigrant popu- lation in our general area, with prob- ably more to arrive.
Being a former nurse, I know
the importance of vaccinations for various diseases that I think the im- migrant population has, most likely, not been vaccinated for. That is my utmost concern with the rising home- less population and the general popu- lation. The homeless do interact with the general population by “hanging around” the various fast food restau- rants, inside and outside!
Do we even know if the home- less population in Fresno County, as a whole, are American citizens? Per- haps we could find out what country these homeless folks are from, as maybe we could vaccinate them.
I don’t have the answers, as most of us do not. I only think we need to look at this rising homelessness through a much broader scope. Praise goes to the city for asking the general population for their input and trying to get a handle on this situation. I think all churches, large and small, should be involved.
Remember community, the March meeting on Monday, March 25, will be about gang activity in our community. Please attend and give input.
Letters from readers
Respectfully,
Sharon Fulcher Reedley