Help me out here. Would we be talking about increasing wages and taxes if Wacker had located elsewhere? State and local governments, along with the Chamber of Commerce, meddled in the economy by incentivizing Wacker to locate in Bradley County.
The argument for these handouts is that they would not locate here without incentives as we are constantly reminded over and over again. So, we can agree without the incentives they would not be here and we would not be talking about increasing wages and taxes.
We are told the need to increase firefighter wages is due to market forces since we are a capitalist economy. Who was it that greased the wheels? The need to increase wages and taxes is a direct result of government interference in the free market. This meddling has artificially and prematurely inflated wages not natural free market forces as claimed by one county commissioner. This is blatant typical government reaction when their plans bring about unintended consequences, flee from responsibility and blame it on something out of their control, in this case the free market system. The free market system didn't cause this need to increase wages and taxes; politicians with their economic development plans got the ball rolling. The socialist of both parties would not know what a free market system looked liked even if it jumped up and bit them on the backside.
What bothers me more than firefighters being paid only a $24,000 starting salary is paying 14 county commissioners around $10,000 a year with health benefits and a retirement plan and them making decisions above their pay grade. There is a reason the County Commission is part-time.
Mike Lynn