It would be difficult to drive through South Marion without noticing that it is, to use the recent words from a friend of mine, economically blasted. From downtown to 'The Village", vacant lots, dilapidated houses, and abandoned properties are commonplace. I grew up attending the Adams Street Christian Church on the corner of 32nd and Adams. My grandmother lived on 31st and Adams. I even lived in a rental on Adams between 31st and 32nd for a short time as a child, so I realize that the people in this area have been struggling for a long time. But it seems as though it has been getting worse over the last couple of decades.
Employment opportunities, especially in manufacturing, have retreated from Marion. Old stalwarts of Marion industry have packed up and headed for greener pastures...or just closed their doors forever. Many of these problems are not unique to Marion. On the contrary, it seems that much of America is stuck in an economic quagmire. The government has been very active in trying to assist those who find themselves unemployed while still supporting the chronically indigent. But welfare is a poor substitute for employment. What we need, what Marion needs, is an economic renaissance.
What can Marion's city government do to help bring about such a renaissance? They have tried many things in recent years. For example, Mayor Seybold has spent a lot of time in China purportedly in order to lure employers here. The city has also focused much effort on developing the I-69 corridor. Part of that effort resulted in Ivy Tech abandoning its old campus for the plush new digs it currently occupies. If I recall correctly, this was going to help educate the citizens of Marion who would in turn help build the economic infrastructure that would put the city back on track. You might argue that the government has confused cause with effect in this endeavor and that a citizenry that is able to create wealth and escape poverty is more likely to have the resources to educate themselves and their children, but you cannot argue that the government has not used the resources at its disposal in an attempt to combat these economic problems. So, why can't they seem to fix Marion? Because they do not possess the tools for the job.
Governments cannot produce wealth. They either redistribute wealth that has already been created, or they consume it. On the market, wealth is created whenever someone combines resources in a way that consumers prefer to the state in which those resources previously existed. This is expressed through profits that are reaped via free exchange. The government exists outside of the market and is completely dependent upon the the market for its survival. The government operates by confiscating wealth that is created on the market and then spending that wealth on resources such as roads, police, firemen, etc. So it should be clear that these government services are ancillary to the wealth created by the governed community. We cannot pay for these things if they have not been created in the first place. Nor can we pay for these things if we do not first make money with which to pay.
The only way the government can help is by decreasing its burden on the suffering public. As Henry David Thoreau said in his legendary essay which inspired both Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., "[G]overnment never of itself furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way". Ludwig von Mises seemed to concur over a century later when he penned, "All that good government can do to improve the material well-being of the masses is to establish and to preserve an institutional setting in which there are no obstacles to the progressive accumulation of new capital and its utilization for the improvement of technical methods of production". If the public has fallen on hard financial times, the government must shrink. It must return the resources it has taken from the public. Recently, the Marion city council has been attempting to do just that. But no one said it would be easy to remove these tax feeders from the public trough.
Apparently, these "public servants" spent several hours pleading for their share of the severely reduced revenue stream. Each one complained that the cuts were too severe and that their particular department was already underfunded. I don't blame them for being concerned about their jobs. I understand that they have families for whom to provide. But I also understand that unlike a market transaction, where entrepreneurs provide for their families by pleasing their customers, the interests of these government employees are at odds with the interests of the taxpayers. They want the taxpayers to have less so that they can have more.
It was recently inferred by my friend Aaron Pratt that I do not acknowledge the "human aspect" when I call for immediate and drastic cuts to the government budget. I think the assorted city department heads should go visit the human beings who reside in South Marion. I wonder if they would find any sympathetic ears if they complained to them about not having enough money.
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