Author: parischamber

The Nation’s Largest Employer has over 22-Million employees –

Elected and appointed local, district, regional, state and national office-holders, can, IF all 22-million wish, express concepts and ideas and take actions that support and approve and help create laws on issues and things that they hate or love.

The following is the result of word games. For instance, civil servants are not the same as government employees, an example being that military employees are not considered as government employees, which distorts – (no, lies about) – federal employment.

(grey)  Local government employees
(yellow)  State government employees
(Blue)  Federal government employees
(The blip up in hiring at the Federal level every 10 years is for the United States census)

But do these officials have the right – moral or legal – to do or say things that do NOT reflect the same promises and commitments they expressed to the voters who elected them and pay for the positions they occupy?

IF they do or are doing so, shouldn’t voters be able to remove them from office? They lied to get the position they hold; thereby, violating their Oath of Office.

A baseline fact is that they were not employed to act as social directors, guiding the community citizens thru the throes of progressive socialism, which they see as progress thru the fog of an unique version of history or just an inability to see cause and effect.

Voters have allowed every level of government to create too many platforms to serve government’s cause . . . 

Today, according to the U. S. Department of Labor, manufacturing employment is down to about 16-million workers. This is a loss of over 2-million jobs in this category since 2000, while government jobs increased over 6-million in the same time period – making it the nation’s largest employer. 

But in addition to the city, state and national government employees there are millions of other elected and appointed office holders  Seldom ever considered, examples are such as those employed in special taxing districts (the Visitor’s group and the PEDC, Lamar County Water District, etc., and a multitude of other tax districts); plus, staffs of numerous government-funded research centers, foundations, think tanks, and various other organizations; plus millions of school and college administrators, teachers and instructors.

Its likely that most employees in the list do not view themselves as office holders but, basically (as with any government office or office holder), they occupy offices that work to inform, educate, direct, promote, publicize, and affect and / or effect public issues, events, and/or a public cause or purpose.

Examining recent decades of voting records, it seems most Paris and Lamar County citizens will vote for or appoint any idiot who claims to love America and wave the flag while promising a “free” government handout or to “make our children safe.” But the same voters will remove their hats (if wearing one) and place a hand over their heart when that flag comes by and, when the national anthem is sung, they’ll join in (at least, on the words they can remember).

Whether the voters are yellow-dog Democrats with standards that haven’t made the change to those of their new “woke” party or an old time Republican who still treasures his or her “I Like Ike” button, they’re not stupid. They just have a real low threshold for electing or appointing self-promoters who cannot or will not walk their talk.

Or, maybe, we only hear what we want to hear and read what we want to read and see what we want to see.

That, however, only proves that we’re semi-members of the human race, which also seems to be a worldwide tendency, except in those totalitarian countries where there is no choice on what to see or read or hear.

Neither Paris, nor Lamar County, is an enclave of socialist thought, regardless of certain characteristics we sometimes demonstrate or read in the paper.

That’s where the fun and the cussing starts. 

But there’s nothing funny about the growing socialist mess Paris and the nation are in––

 

                     return to  Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

 

 

This is one of the Big Myths: That each of us be deeply and forever in debt to the state or the sponsoring organization carrying out the process. They dogmatically believe that each of us owes these secular creators everlasting thanks and offerings – and they scold everyone who refuses to accept such an open-ended claim.

Nearly all schemes for uplifting society fail because the originators make the error of thinking that society is a manufactured thing, which can be altered by changing the process of how things are done. Most people see social order, economic growth, education and prosperity as being unobtainable unless engineered into existence – usually, by the government or the organization sponsoring a scheme for progress. This is one of the Big Myths.

 These believers demand that each of us be deeply and forever in debt to the state or the sponsoring organization carrying out the process. They dogmatically believe that each of us owes these secular creators everlasting thanks and offerings – and they scold everyone who refuses to accept such an open-ended claim. 

This is the Big Myth: To complain about paying taxes – and, worse, to actively oppose or reject the manufactured process – is selfishly resisting to give what is owed by each of us puny beneficiaries for the state’s or secular creator’s beneficence, magnificence, and grace. 

Another Big Myth is that government carries out the will of the people as long as its top officials are chosen by majority rule. This niave faith in majoritarian democracy is a mistake because there is, in fact, no “will of the people.” 

If, as individuals, we each have a sentient mind with our own hopes, fears, dreams and preferences, how do we become “the people” – as politicians like to refer to us? 

“The people” is not a sentient creature with a mind and hopes, fears, dreams and preferences. Naturally, individuals can come together to make a group, but this does not transform the group of people into a giant individual equivalent to each of the flesh-and-blood men, women, and children who make up or comprise the group. It doesn’t mean that two or more individuals cannot agree upon an objective and goals to pursue together. 

For centuries, individuals have pooled their resources to create communities, build roads and highways, and organized ways to defend ourselves (or even to attack others). But all this is a form of democratic decision-making, a “best means” way for registering the preferences of each individual in a way that results in an acceptable collective decision. 

But this reality does not mean that the results of the democratic decision-making process reveal that “the people” have a will that is in any way similar to the will that is possessed and exercised by each individual. All that even the best collective decision-making process does is to discover a compromise outcome that is acceptable to each member of the group. 

Supposing that the results of majority rule express the will of this collective creature – creates the false and dangerous impression that if any individual objects to a majority-rule outcome, this individual is attempting to elevate his paltry self over a will not only as real as his own but also greater because it is that of many individuals. But, again, “the People” is not a being with a mind or a will. It follows that no method of collective decision-making, not even the most ideal form of democracy, reveals the People’s will.

That which is unreal cannot be revealed. 

And the most pernicious of all Big Myths is that the economy and society – or, at least, any economy that is productive, and any society that is good – are the conscious creation of the state or the collective control that leads to enslavement and human misery. 

Society is not a manufactured process that can be controlled and managed. 

It is a living entity, comprised of sentient individuals each with his or her own mind and preferences and fears and hopes. And for too long, the reality is that Paris has treated citizens as its resource.

The Paris leadership should remember that community growth will come from Paris being a resource for its citizens.

                   return to Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

 

Most of the things that we brag about in Paris Texas are amenities, not essentials.  

The difference is important.

Most of the more recent things Paris brags about, such as the Eiffel Tower replica, the Red River Valley Veterans Memorial, the Maxey House, the Lamar County Historical Museum, The Valley of the Caddo Museum, and others, are the result of private efforts; started and carried out to completion by private individuals – while the city has wasted about 13-years and hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to restore the Grand Theater (which, if it ever gets fully restored, may be an amenity).

Even the Civic Center and both prized and re-purposed Depots are the results of large contributions from private funds. 

All these things are amenities. 

And, yes, they are worthwhile, and they contribute to the community.  Oh, sure, the city and other organizations in Paris supported the efforts (the city and the PEDC even giving, when they shouldn’t, tax dollars). But those efforts were started from scratch, led and supported by individuals who achieved the worthwhile results –

Of course, amenities are nice, but they’re not essential.

You can have a house full of amenities, modern or antique, but they are not part of the necessity for basic shelter.  Others may not like or appreciate your rooms of stuff, amenities, but you don’t expect or demand others to pay for them.

Local churches are considered community amenities, so if some of the local Baptists need a new church, should community tax dollars pay for it? 

Government supposedly is to provide for what is essential, not for amenities.

We vote to impose taxes on ourselves because infrastructure is essential to a community. In return, this creates an obligation on, and a responsibility for, the community to provide those things that are essential, such as police and fire protection, maintaining streets and traffic flows, providing water and sewer, trash collection and disposal, etc., and developing ordinances and zoning to help provide for an orderly, cohesive community; those things which benefit all the citizens.

Amenities are not used by all citizens.  As an example, not everyone goes to a Baptist Church, despite us Baptists thinking everyone should…(that’s a gentle bit of humor for those of other denominations. You know, like “where you find four Baptists, you’ll find a fifth.”)  Anyway….

….volunteer organizations, such as chambers of commerce, came into being to develop amenities of the community (and to be an independent business voice for a community); not to be parasites sucking up non-voluntary tax dollars.

 

If a project is worthwhile people will voluntarily fund it; if it isn’t, they won’t.

This is why good and sound and varied leadership is important.  As long as folks voluntarily use their money to pay for what they want, it’s not a big deal, which is not true when forced to pay for someone else’s pride and joy. 

Subsidizing amenities – giving tax-dollars to a favored few – deliberately and knowingly picking and choosing winners and losers – are things a city (or any government) should not do.  There is no fair or equal way to spend tax dollars on amenities. The Goosey-Gander principle will not work because of personal opinions. Neither will robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Paris didn’t get behind the economic eight ball because city government did its job: Over the years, city government let things slide – from neglecting certain areas and aging streets and increased traffic flows to letting favored landlords neglect property to allowing zoning changes that drained away the downtown business district. Plus, the city started giveaway programs of everyone’s tax dollars to a special few. In short, most of what is currently wrong in Paris is because the city didn’t do its’ job –   

Paris forgot that the basic job of government is to take care of the essentials.

 

IF a government can’t take care of what is the government’s business, how can it take care of what isn’t the government’s business?

Today, instead of doing those things – and only those things that are essential – that are their obligations and responsibilities, our local problems are compounded by the City of Paris acting as an “expert” in the development and the funding of community and economic amenities. 

But when was the City of Paris endowed with Emperor status?

Since the New Frontier and the Great Society programs of the early 60’s, government advocates have promised that their economic programs would eliminate poverty. They’ve spent trillions of tax-dollars trying to do it. But according to the government’s own statistics, there are more poor people today and fewer equal opportunities for economic advancement.  All those dollars and all those efforts only succeeded in creating wealth for fewer and fewer folks.

Government not only has lost the war on poverty, but also the war on drugs; it can’t even protect our border. So, it should be evident that government isn’t always the answer. 

Over the years, our trust in government has slowly eroded away.

To the Paris Chamber, it seems the city (like government everywhere) tries to do too many things which are not in their job description.  And as long as the city will do or fund those things which should be the responsibility of others, they will let the city do it.

And they’ll never fuss when the city does something wrong, especially if the city is also giving them other people’s tax money. Most importantly, how can the taxpayers trust the city, when the city is giving their tax dollars to a select few?

The question citizens need to ask:  If we can’t trust our local government, how can we trust our state and national legislative bodies?

We should remember that while common-sense is a hoped for amenity, it isn’t a qualifying essential to serve on a board or for holding public office or even to manage the affairs of an organization.

“In fact, if law were restricted to protecting all persons, all liberties, and all properties; if law were nothing more than the organized combination of the individual’s right to self-defense; if law were the obstacle, the check, the punisher of all oppression and plunder — is it likely that we citizens would then argue much about the extent of the franchise?” ― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law

   

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