EDITORIAL

All the proposals for stimulus packages to "jump-start" the economy can't hold a candle to one steady, good-paying job in the manufacturing sector.

The tax dollars in the federal treasury being spent on these giveaway proposals are not being replenished by extra tax revenue. Sooner or later, the politicians will be scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for money that is no longer available.

What long-term good can come from government handouts of cash while the Department of Labor confirms that jobs are being lost by the thousands each week?

The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported that the New York metropolitan area will lose 181,000 jobs this year. Los Angeles is expected to lose 164,000; Greater Miami, 85,000; and the Chicago area expects a 80,000 loss.

In comparison, the U.S. population in the early 1960s was six percent of the world's total, but produced 83 percent of all goods manufactured globally.

There were plenty of jobs during that period, but those figures are long since gone. The only thing this country has to show now is a greater jobs loss—and a population that is beginning to think the government was created to provide cradle-to-grave care for everyone.

Government did not invent the power of electricity or the steam engine that powered factories and mills, locomotives and steam boats. Credit the individual initiative of several engineers over the course of hundreds of years.

Nor was it government that forever revolutionized the process of producing automobiles- and just about everything else that is manufactured. It was the initiative of Henry Ford and his assembly line that created millions of jobs and made the 20th century the era of the car.

It was individuals at Apple and IBM—not government— who made the strides in technology that rendered computer use commonplace.

Government should recognize the true engine of the American economy and get out of its way. Real wealth that gives the economy a boost is generated by the individual who invents something that people want, if not need.

A government printing press pumping out paper money is no substitute for initiative, nor are make-work government programs spinning off dead-end jobs.

President Barack Obama was swept into office by the winds of change. His speeches are stirring, but as inspirational as they may sound, more than words is needed now.

Make it possible for people to have meaningful employment— a steady job—and the comfort of knowing that the paychecks they earn will feed, clothe and educate their families.

Bring back that wonderful confidence in American know-how—the can-do attitude that made this nation great as the producer of goods labeled with the most effective words of all: "Made in the U.S.A."