Skera þarf niður

Ríkissjóður er rekinn með æðisgengnum halla og er stórskuldugur. Gjaldeyrishöft og skattahækkanir halda erlendu lánsfé og fjárfestingum útlendinga í hæfilegri fjarlægð frá íslenska hagkerfinu. Risavaxið tónlistarhús er reist í Reykjavík á meðan skorið er niður í heilbrigðis- og menntakerfinu. Lífið er sogið úr veikbyggðu atvinnulífinu með nýjum og auknum opinberum álögum. Á sama tíma fjölgar opinber stjórnsýsla starfsmönnum til að geta fylgst með öllum nýju reglunum og innheimtu allra nýju skattanna. 

Það seinasta sem hagkerfinu vantar, ofan á allt þetta, eru aukin fjárútlát hins opinbera í framkvæmdir til að blása lífi í eina atvinnugrein á kostnað allra annarra.

Í góðri og frægri bók segir þetta, og hvet ég alla til að lesa:

Therefore, for every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else. We can see the men employed on the bridge. We can watch them at work. The employment argument of the government spenders becomes vivid, and probably for most people convincing. But there are other things that we do not see, because, alas, they have never been permitted to come into existence. They are the jobs destroyed by the $10 million taken from the taxpayers. All that has happened, at best, is that there has been a diversion of jobs because of the project. More bridge builders; fewer automobile workers, television technicians, clothing workers, farmers.

But then we come to the second argument. The bridge exists. It is, let us suppose, a beautiful and not an ugly bridge. It has come into being through the magic of government spending. Where would it have been if the obstructionists and the reactionaries had had their way? There would have been no bridge. The country would have been just that much poorer. Here again the government spenders have the better of the argument with all those who cannot see beyond the immediate range of their physical eyes. They can see the bridge. But if they have taught themselves to look for indirect as well as direct consequences they can once more see in the eye of imagination the possibilities that have never been allowed to come into existence. They can see the unbuilt homes, the unmade cars and washing machines, the unmade dresses and coats, perhaps the ungrown and unsold foodstuffs. To see these uncreated things requires a kind of imagination that not many people have. We can think of these nonexistent objects once, perhaps, but we cannot keep them before our minds as we can the bridge that we pass every working day. What has happened is merely that one thing has been created instead of others.

Hið opinbera getur gert alveg helling til að bæta aðstæður á Íslandi. Að leggja aukin útgjöld á herðar skattgreiðenda nú og í framtíðinni er óheillaráð.

Verður að greiða götu stórframkvæmda

Athugasemdir

[Sigurður Haraldsson, 10.2.2010 kl. 15:55]

Já áherslunnar hjá stjórnvöldum eru hræðilegar tónlistahús hvaða hagnaður er í því auknir skattar hvað hefur það uppá sig landflótta og stöðnun já.