Free Money

Do you believe in free money?

I certainly don’t, but there are millions of Americans who do.

Now, I’m not an economist, but I do know you can’t conjure up money out of thin air. Unfortunately, the federal government feels differently. For years now when the money supply gets tight they just print some more.

So what has me writing about this subject that I admittedly am not an expert on? An experience in dealing with my local government, that’s what.

Recently I got a call from one of the supervisors here in my home township in Pennsylvania when they needed some help with their computer. The township secretary was unable to perform some needed tasks and I was called in to help instruct her on what to do and to do some normal maintenance. The supervisors called me because they were unhappy with the service provided by the company they purchased the computer from and they know me from attending meetings of the board of supervisors and the local water authority as well as being involved in the community in other ways. Plus they wanted someone local and were happy to send some business to a township resident starting up a new business, which I greatly appreciate.

What I found when I got to the office was a relatively new computer that was not working as well as it should. The machine had been purchased from a company in a nearby town when the old computer crashed. The township was in a bind as they needed something right then when the crash occurred and as the old saying goes, they went to the nearest port in the storm. The new computer is a ‘Brand X’ machine which, although purchased brand new, was out of date when they bought it. I believe the seller had it sitting in a box in storage until they could find a sucker to unload it on. And our township supervisors who were in a bind and didn’t have the expertise to know better ended up with it.

There were problems transferring data immediately. We found this out after I followed all the correct steps and the disks came up blank. It took me awhile to find the problem but eventually I did and now all is working well.

While I was working on it one of the supervisors came in and was asking how long it would take as she was worried about the cost of the project. I told her I couldn’t tell at that point but that I would be adjusting my bill downwards if things continued to go awry.

After the supervisor left the secretary said that I should just charge my usual rate as the township has plenty of money. Being a local taxpayer I told her that the money which the township has comes out of both of our pockets as she is a local home owner as well.

Eventually the problem was solved and everything restored to good order. At least as good of order as can be. The problem lay in some faulty hardware and had I tried a slightly different, though less likely, approach in the beginning I’d have found it sooner. So I told the supervisor (Who I voted for and who refuses to take the full salary allowed by law for her position; does she remind you of another politician we all respect?) I’d charge for 4 hours instead of the 9 I put in since if I’d have taken the unlikely path in the beginning I’d have been done in four hours. I asked if she thought that was fair and she replied, ”More than fair”.

As a result I have a solid new client in the township and an enthusiastic supporter in our supervisor who will now be recommending me to other local municipalities whenever they get together for countywide meetings and such. And that recommendation will no doubt be more valuable than what I’d have gotten by charging for those other 5 hours.

And that brings me back to the topic of this essay – free money.

The township secretary’s attitude is “charge away, it’s the government and they have lots of cash.” The other computer consultant’s attitude was sell these folks a piece of junk that we can’t get rid of to anyone else because it’s the government and they have lots of money.

This attitude is widespread in our country and in my opinion the major reason for it is the federal government’s ability to just print up new dollars at will with nothing to back them. And the longer we follow this crooked path the harder it will be to get back on the straight and narrow. I may not be an economist but I can understand that we can’t continue as we have been without a crash that will make your computer going down seem like a day at the beach. There is no free money. What money the government has comes from me and you.

Our current system is taxing our most vulnerable citizens in a most insidious manner and it has to stop. And there is only one candidate for president who will put a stop to this - Dr. Ron Paul.

Do yourself, your neighbors and your country a favor. Campaign for Ron Paul. Donate what you can to Ron Paul. And most importantly, vote for Ron Paul.