The Dirty Little Secret

There is a dirty little secret at large, yet highly prevalent in this area.

Put simply, since at least 1965 approximately one of three residents of Barton, Jasper, Newton and McDonald Counties has qualified for some form of government or private assistance merely to survive at a basic subsistence level. Employment statistics do not take into account (a) those job seekers who have after long, fruitless search just given up and left the market, and (b) those who, in order to keep their heads at water level have taken on positions far below their earning capabilities. There are BS/MS degree holders out there flipping burgers and taking payment for gasoline. There are many who can only dream of purchasing the products or services of the company for which they work.

Let me pose a little challenge to the chairmen/presidents/CEOs of each company represented in this area: add up all the costs (including any deposits) for what you consider a basic acceptable way of life. Including salary, benefits and perquisites, is your lowest full-time hourly worker bringing in at least that much from your company?

To look at it another way: if his own total tangible income from all business-related sources amounts to more than seventeen (17) times that of the employee I just mentioned, that chairman/president/CEO is a thief and a robber. He is enriching himself disproportionately off the backs of those who are actually making his lifestyle possible.

Not too long ago the owner of one company in this area was overheard on the golf course stating that he would (if he could) dismiss all his local employees and replace them with illegal aliens. His reasoning was that those employees would take whatever he wanted to give them, keep their mouths shut, and work their hearts out for the privilege of living here.

Farmers and gardeners understand the universal law of seed time and harvest: whatever you plant, that is what you in time will harvest in a multiple of what you originally planted.