Uncovering the "hidden" gems

It is my turn to write the commissioner’s article for the KelsoLongview Chamber of Commerce newsletter and that is an honor. It also is a burden. What is the point of a letter if not to communicate with the reader, but what does the newsletter reader want to read? I have no idea, so, with apologies, I write what I think is ignored or hard to find, which is either some “hidden” story or some fundamental issues that drive the current political problems.

“Gang in Possession”

In one of my recent submissions to the Chamber newsletter, I wrote that the USA now is a banana republic. Banana republics exist because it is human nature to press for more money and power.

wants to take on “city hall.”

The quest to tax the public further could not be met solely on the income tax, so may other taxes were invented. The second most clever tax of all is inflation. This was setup effectively as follows:

1. The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913, after years of debate and discussion over the need for a more centralized and flexible banking system in the United States.

2. President Franklin D. Roosevelt creates Executive Order 6102 on April 5, 1933, making it illegal for individuals, partnerships, associations, and corporations to own or possess monetary gold (with certain exceptions such as jewelry and collector’s coins) in the United States.

3. Conversion of the U.S. dollar to gold was officially ended on August 15, 1971, by President Richard Nixon.

Our founding fathers had superb command of history and human behavior, so to make a “more perfect union” they created a republic with rules explicitly written in a constitution. The spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are fundamental building blocks of the USA, and the simple and basic rules define the fundamental compact for a REPUBLIC. Benjamin Franklin cautioned us, “a republic, if you can keep it.” If not zealously guarded, the republic will get alloyed by willful misuse of language. The book, “1984” should come to mind. Ben Franklin would struggle to understand “woke.”

The fundamentals of a banana republic are repugnant to most hard-working people, who are not given the truth or complete picture of most circumstances. Of course, there is a group which enjoys using government to pursue their own personal material or psychic gains. As this group got larger, we ran into the end of a very good thing, the USA, and its founding principles.

Deceiving the People

To get to be a banana republic takes time, and it starts with obfuscation of truth so that an agenda can be pushed onto the people.

4. The ban on private ownership of gold in the United States was lifted on December 31, 1974, by President Gerald Ford. It should be obvious that the above actions in 1,2, and 3 had no Constitutional standing, yet under the concept of expediency or emergency the people of the USA allowed that to take place.

Some ask, where is the harm? The most serious harm is in the abandonment of the Constitution. The easily identified harm can be seen in the following chart:

Notice that prior to the dumping of the gold standard, there was

One effort to deceive the people was federal income tax paycheck withholding. It was clear that the people would not have tolerated being given a yearly bill for their income taxes, so withholding a bit of tax at every paycheck was invented. The rest is quite a sordid history of lies and manipulations that the people allowed, largely because one can do many bad things, but not paying your taxes will elicit a very nasty response from the government and who

For more Commissioner, see page 11 a tendency for prices to decline. The reason is quite simple: It is easier to dig a ditch with a machine than it is by hand. The drive to compete, inherent in capitalism, means that inventions make work easier and products cheaper.

Rental Subsidies

Let me bring this back to something specific to us, the rental subsidies that we are told are justified by the lack of affordable housing.

Last year (or late 2021), as I recall, we were showered with all sorts of grants to make up for the severe damage of the COVID response. One of those programs was a Department of Commerce rental and utility subsidy, with a total price tag of a bit more than $9 million. That money for that program will be exhausted by March, if I recall correctly. I am told that more than 95 percent went to rent subsidies.

I am not allowed to get the names of the recipients of this money, and that is a serious issue for two reasons:

• How can the County audit the expenditures? This is unacceptable. The opportunity for abuse of this program is massive.

• The public should have visibility into every detail of how its money is used. As an elected official, I have to disclose many personal details; the public knows what money I get for what purpose. The idea of taking welfare with dignity is counterproductive.

However, I was able to get the following information (to date)

200 who received between $1-10,000

134 who received between $10,000-50,000

11 who received between $50,000-100,000

13 who received between $100,000-375,000

The rental assistance was not paid to the renter, but to the landlord. What do you think about paying some landlord $375,000? There is an attractive argument that these landlords were damaged by the COVID rules (but who wasn’t), so the subsidies were warranted. My Momma told me that two wrongs don’t make a right. Aside from being unfair to other businesses, these subsidies greatly aggravate rental affordability. The average rental subsidy was $860 per month. There is no incentive for landlords to compete for tenants.

The Take Away

Each of us has a part to play if we are to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, there are no other categories; there is no fence sitting. Next time you lobby the government, realize that you are playing their game. All this will end; try to make it on your terms.

Jerry D. Petrick Certified Business Adviser