Keeping promises
Businesses and whole economies suffer when promises that are made are not kept. Even the perception that a business is about to renege on an economic pledge can cause disastrous results. In tough economic times, businesses depend heavily on support promised by state and local government. If the state has promised to allow tax incentives or bond obligations to support a state employer, then for any branch of state government to play political football with those promises is unthinkable. No matter what the justification, if a business is forced to consider leaving the state because it is perceived that the state might back out on its obligations, then no one wins. And future business might not even be willing to consider Mississippi if we gain the reputation of playing politics with our promises. The legislature, both now and in the coming months, must find a way to work around political differences and put our future at the very top of their lists. DBJ

A spoonful of sugar…
Oh, it’s a great day when the government is going to step in and save our kids from their mental problems. A bill is up before the Senate which will provide funds for mandatory mental health screening for children in public schools. The purpose of the new bureaucracy would be to find mental health problems, so they will whether they really exist or not. Expect the diagnoses of ADD and such to rise accordingly and sales of Ritalin to go up too. Coincidence? We think not; sounds like a lot of back scratching to us. Keep in mind, parents don’t have a choice in this matter – diagnosed kids will get screened, diagnosed as ‘slow’ or ‘ADD’ or whatever and thus labeled for life (if they were normal, the bureaucracy wouldn’t need to exist, you see). And worse, they may be ‘medicated,’ “for their own good,” of course. DBJ

Privatizing social security
The White House has a proposal to allow individuals to put 2% of their Social Security contribution into a private account to be managed by that individual. For the record, that’s $20 out of $1000 you put in that the White House thinks you should be able to manage for yourself. We think this is a good idea, and that it really doesn’t go far enough. Why? Because, some Americans already have a private ‘social security’ plan. Employees of three counties around Galveston, Texas, opted out of the Social Security program back when they still could and established their own private plan for county employees. Contribution rates are similar but the benefits to these people at retirement are about five times what regular Social Security provides! Two examples: a retired $50,000 per year worker would receive $6,843 per month from the private plan at current interest rates compared to $1,302 from Social Security. For a retired $20,000 per year employee, the private plan provides $2,740 per month vs. $775 from Social Security. Read the National Center for Policy Analysis Brief #215 (www.ncpa.org/ba/ ba215.html) if your blood pressure is a little low. The other differences will certainly cause it to rise…DBJ