IDAHO: A Guest Opinion on Growth

An important topic is growth, including population growth that fuels the economic monster. Our Treasure Valley is not immune to growth, and as you well know we are suffering under the weight of our expansion. The legislature is having an increasingly difficult time getting the necessary funds to pay for all the things necessary to continue growing. Doesn't anyone have a better idea than adding more people?

Progress comes at a price for those caught in the maelstrom of growth.

Brainwashed Americans believe growth is necessary for the assumed benefit of higher incomes and the distribution of taxes over a larger base. This philosophy has accelerated the destruction of our God given heritage---the land.

We have lost 50 percent of the original wetlands, 90 percent of old growth forests, 99 percent of our prairies, and currently losing topsoil at a rate 20 times the rate that it can be replaced.

Obviously, our leaders are "stuck on stupid” if they believe that growth can be managed, regulated, or controlled while still promoting population growth.

How well are we managing growth? It should be evident that on a national level we are not doing so well. In less than 50 years we have increased our population from 150 million in 1960 to more than 300 million today. Eighty percent is due to immigration (both legal and illegal). In 1960 our debt was 310 billion; today it is approaching 10 trillion and does not include the 50 trillion in IOU's to social security and medicare. Millions of jobs have been outsourced. Much of our manufacturing has moved to countries with cheaper labor, because our government has instituted unfair trade deals. One must conclude there is a strong correlation, and no doubt a causal relation, between population and debt.

Taxpayers, not businesses, feel the pain when we add more lanes to I-84, add emission testing, build larger jails, provide drug treatment facilities, build another 100 subdivisions, and add luxury seating for those that can afford the view. All the while government encourages large corporations, along with their need for more cheap workers to come to Idaho, and do so tax-free? In this whirlwind we are continually in a state of catch up. There is never enough money to fund the needs that growth demands. In a panic our legislators use their only weapon; impose more taxes. And, who pays?

The Idaho Department of Labor, August 2007, says our personal income rose 9.9 percent in the Boise Metro area from 2005. The Statesman, in October 2007, said Idaho's cost of living outpaces wages. Eighty-seven percent of open jobs pay less than a living wage. An Idaho Community Action Network study said a single adult with two kids needs to earn $23.44 per hour to cover necessities. Not even the average Micron worker earned that much. Who pays such wages when illegal aliens work at near minimum wages and legitimize that scale?

Does it ever occur to our smart growth managers that adding more people to the mix increases the amounts of governmental services, increases the need for more infrastructures, while simultaneously increasing demands from our limited resources? Do they really care? Business and professional groups having a common economic interest in promoting growth, only fund the election of candidates that are willing to support their view. Once elected the officials reward their benefactors with incentives and subsidies that stimulate further growth regardless of the impacts on the citizenry. Remember, all growth has it’s limits!

Unhappy Americans from Idaho

Additional Blog Site: www.allaboutimmigration.blogspot.com