Or: Why Nevada
business regularly ends up as the main course on everyone
else's dinner plate -- and what to do about it.
In October 1964,
in his first nationally televised speech to the American
people, Ronald Reagan—on behalf of the Presidential campaign
of Barry Goldwater—cited a news story from earlier that year.
“Last February
19 at the University of Minnesota, Norman Thomas, six-time
candidate for President on the Socialist Party ticket, said,
‘If Barry Goldwater became President, he would stop the
advance of socialism in the United States.’
"I
think that’s exactly what he will do,” said Reagan.
Of course, Barry
Goldwater did not become president, and today, as Milton
Friedman points out, the U.S. is today well over 50%
socialist. And that's by the socialists' own classic
definition of their goal: "control over the means of
production."
It
has come about primarily through the concentrated efforts of
those who, being in government, want ever bigger government,
and those who, feeding off government spending, want
ever-higher government spending.
Their spearhead
has been government employees who stay permanently on the
offensive and who work full-time , usually on the taxpayers'
dime, organizing to expand the beachheads they have
already established in government.
This is also
the story here in the state of Nevada:
It’s why, right
after the largest tax increase in state history, every day
brings news of how they are maneuvering to keep and spend
all of the state’s unjustified $1.4 billion-dollar surplus
on brand-new programs—programs that will, of course, require
brand-new tax increases at the very next economic slump.
It's why,
after years of warnings over Nevada's property tax system,
every day still brings news of
lawmakers
maneuvering to keep from returning any of the property
tax windfall the governments are receiving. It reveals a
breath-taking willingness to tolerate financial hardship on
thousands of average Nevada homeowners.
It’s why, in
Clark County and Washoe County both, additional half-percent
hikes in the sales tax are on the launch pad, and
It’s
why the Clark County commission just callously -- and
unanimously -- stuck the already highly taxed car rental
industry with a brand new 2 percent tax to fund the
commissioners' cultural pretensions in the form of a new
public performing arts boondoggle.
Nevada's barons
of government, when they think of business at all,
increasingly only see trussed-up roast pigs on serving
platters -- with apples in their mouths.
Clearly,
something new is needed here in Nevada to put a halt to
this madness. Looking at it from the point of view of
business, it needs to be something that will throw a real
fright into self-seeking politicians. Looking at it from the
standpoint of NPRI and our mission of expanding personal and
economic freedom, it needs to be a new force for
freedom in the policy arena.
So what is
the strongest potential force for freedom in this
state? Based on our wide-ranging experience at NPRI, we have
come to believe it would be an informed, unified
and organized independent business
community. Clearly we don’t have that now—at least, not in
comparison with the coalition that regularly forms around the
idea of preying upon the general Nevada business
community. But we believe it is doable, and doable without
huge difficulty.
For the Nevada
business community, these conditions I mentioned—informed,
unified and organized—will need to be
achieved in a certain order. Organization always
depends upon a prior, agreed unity of purpose.
Similarly, that unity of purpose requires some common,
underlying information.
So this is where
NPRI proposes to start—with information.
We believe that
Nevada’s independent business people need a statewide network
where business leaders and friendly legislators who do have
important strategic and tactical information to share can get
the word out efficiently, statewide, to the business people
who need or want to know.
NPRI is
creating such a network. We've recently met with leaders
from different organizations in the independent or non-gaming
business community getting their counsel and their commitment.
What you are reading now, BusinessNevada---a free,
e-mail newsletter on policy-related matters of interest to
Nevada businesses---is an outgrowth of those meetings.
Once a week (or
oftener, when needed), Business Nevada will go out to
the entire Nevada general business community. Appearing
unobtrusively on subscribers’ computer desktops, it will be
available there whenever they want to check it. It will
feature interviews with key legislators and business leaders,
actively managed links to news stories important to Nevada
business, and access to private discussion boards where
members and subscribers can exchange valuable information.
Information
changes behavior.
It is in this way, we believe, that this statewide information
service—stepping over the fragmentation that in so many ways
afflicts the business community in Nevada today—will begin
unifying that community and thus increasing its influence:
-
Thousands
of new Nevada business people will have good information on
important policy questions.
-
Business
people and interested lawmakers who do have good
information will be able to efficiently communicate that
information statewide.
-
With many
more business people well-informed about the threats coming
at them and “on the same page,” statewide unity will
grow.
-
Because
business people deal practically with problems they face,
that unity of purpose will increasingly, spontaneously take
the form of effective statewide organization.
-
Thus this
information service and statewide network will, in turn,
generate an empowered general business community,
with its own statewide infrastructure.
Business Nevada,
reaching east and west and north and south across the state,
will give the business community the means to play a
positive, active role in shaping Nevada’s destiny—during the
current legislative session and in years to come.
We would very
much welcome your active participation and assistance.
