Congressman Paul Ryan
1233 Longworth HOB
Washington D.C. 20515
Congressman
Ryan:
I happened
to catch part of your appearance on the Michael Medved show. I heard enough to
know that you are somebody I need to talk to.
Our country has
many serious problems. One of our greatest problems is the economy. When people are not working, they become more
dependent on the government, which goes deeper into debt to support them, which
depresses the economy even further as it pulls more money out of the private sector.
I know there
are many advocates for public spending to boost or drive the economy, but borrowing
money is always the more expensive way to do anything and what money that is
not borrowed is taken from somebody to give to somebody else, so ultimately it
is just moving the same money around. People
are only getting richer as somebody else is getting poorer.
Our population
is growing rapidly as we bring in million of immigrants, but we don’t have the
jobs to support them, so this only fuels our increasing government debt which dampens
the economy even further.
There is a
way out, and only one that I see.
When a country
makes all of its own stuff, then as the population increases, demand increases,
and jobs increase. There are only 4 ways
to increase the amount of wealth that a country has: manufacturing, agriculture,
mining, and fishing. Otherwise we are just
moving the same money around. One person
gets more as another person gets less.
We sent
millions of our jobs overseas in the name of free or fair trade. We were sold the idea that we could create more
jobs by exporting our products to the world.
But this means that our economy is now dependent on the prosperity of
the rest of the world in order for our own country to prosper. We have taken the control of our economy out
of our hands and placed it in the hands of other countries, which we cannot
control.
Society has
always run on the premise: I take care of my family, because we love each other
the most and we can influence each other the most. I can’t take care of my neighbors, because I don’t
have the time, I don’t have the personal investment, and I don’t have the authority.
So too nations need to take care of their own people first, because they don’t
have the means, the authority, or the knowledge to take care of any other country.
When a
country makes its own stuff, we take care of our own people. Everybody has a job, because we can see the needs
in front of us and create the jobs to meet those needs. We can’t do this for another country.
We have always
traded with other countries, but it has always been where the other country offered
us something unique that we wanted, like Swiss chocolate, French wine, Chinese silk,
or even a Japanese car. We always paid
more for it, and we were happy to do it. But now they are making our own stuff
with their workers, and we don’t have the jobs.
A global economy,
which is sounds so noble and enlightened, only impoverishes the wealthier
nations and actually does very little for the poorer ones, because they are not
developing their own economy. We are giving them jobs, sure, at the cost of our
own jobs, but we are not really helping them, because countries shouldn’t be relying
on another country for its own prosperity.
But don’t countries
benefit when they can buy products cheaper from a foreign source? Only in
the short run, because as we eventually lose the jobs of making our own stuff,
we have more and more people out of work and dependent on public resources. So what you saved on that appliance, you pay
more in taxes and inflation due to government debt.
Any products
brought in from a foreign country should be taxed. Maybe 10-15%. I know in the past these taxes
were often removed, added, or varied by industry, but I think that was a
mistake. People need to be taught that
buying something from a foreign country that we used to make here may be
cheaper for the moment, but we are paying a much higher cost in the long run as
we lose jobs and the government assumes more responsibility for taking care of
its own people.
So bottom
line: the only way we can support our people and do this most efficiently and
keep being able to do this as our population grows is to make our own stuff. Imports are fine when they are foreign
companies that want to enter our market, but not when it is our own companies
that we have chased away or otherwise made it unprofitable to work here.
Thank you.
Larry Craig
