Dear Editor,
When government consistently shows it doesn't understand the value of a tax payer's dollar, the money it wastefully spends just creates an inflationary bubble. It establishes a cost of doing business well above the actual cost. If government pays X amount of dollars, especially on no bid contracts like the Obamacare website at a cost of over a billion dollars, it only devalues the U.S. Dollar. Would Facebook exist today if it cost a billion dollars to build the website? Absolutely not. With a national minimum wage of $15 dollars a hour is that a lot of money in New York City? No. How about in Milton or Pensacola? $600 dollars a week will go a lot farther here than there. It will go even farther in other places in the country.
Does local government spending for pet projects create the same inflationary bubble? Being more money spent than what is needed to accomplish the needed or not needed project. How about 4 lanes of Hwy. 90 thru town versus two one way lanes being Hwy. 90 and Berryhill St. or the extended Boardwalk on the river or the marina business, River Run Marina, now owned by the City of Milton? What is the purpose of private property or free enterprise when government can use our tax dollars to relieve the citizens of both? If this were Jeopardy, the question would be "What is Socialism"?
Steven M. King
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: The cost of governmental spending