An
exchange with an elected public official in response to a recent Letter
to the Editor of mine published in the Bemidji Pioneer.
This was my Letter to the Editor...
Letter: We need a full employment act
By Alan L. Maki from Warroad on Nov 27, 2013 at 8:01pm
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/letter-we-need-full-employment-act
The article in the Oct. 25 Bemidji Pioneer headlined “Minimum wage discussion draws full house at City Hall” left out a very important aspect of what a living minimum wage should be based on.
Fact: Working people without jobs are going to be poor.
Fact: Working people paid poverty wages are going to be poor.
Seems to me a real living minimum wage tied to real cost of living factors is a basic and minimal requirement toward ending poverty with government assuming full responsibility for attaining and maintaining full employment which is so basic to ending poverty that it would seem that any politician talking about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when campaigning for election would be the very first, upon being elected, to introduce legislation requiring that the president and members of Congress mandate the responsibility for full employment to themselves lest they be viewed as hypocrites.
Instead of voting to fund militarism and wars which kill jobs the same way they kill people, we need to elect people to public office who will enact a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity.”
Alan L. Maki
Warroad, Minnesota
Response from Steve Pemble an elected public official...
Letter: Some issues are easy to resolve, if you don’t use your head
Posted on Dec 2, 2013 at 4:15pm
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/letter-some-issues-are-easy-resolve-if-you-dont-use-your-head
I just finished reading the letter from Alan Maki (Nov. 28) wanting to put an end to poverty. I thought, “yeah, I’m for that’! Mr. Maki is suggesting that politicians run on a platform of introducing a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”, where government would “assume full responsibility for attaining and maintaining full employment”.
I’m not sure if he is naïve, or just uniformed (or both). Does he honestly believe government can solve the unemployment issue by simply “mandating full employment”? Why didn’t I think of that. Some issues are so easy to resolve, if you don’t use your head.
A couple of quick notes for you Alan: 1. The government does not have any money. It gets its money from the producers in this country (through taxation). 2. If you haven’t been up on the news or your reading lately, this government has been currently spending about a $1 trillion more than it takes in with taxes each year (that $1T is created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve and passed on to us, the taxpayers, in the form of debt).
We are currently printing money to pay the interest on that debt (while adding more debt). So with that said, how do you expect to pay all the salaries in your “full employment” fantasyland? (remember, the government has no money of its own). I’m only to assume you would have the government “mandate all private businesses hire more people” since we now know the government can’t pay them (it is impossible to tax enough to make your fantasyland work). Are you a business owner? How would you handle that mandate? Please explain how that will work?
I know how it would end. My advice, Mr. Maki: Please don’t ever run for any political office; you’ll give politicians a bad name (wait, that was funny). I would also suggest brushing up on your economics just a tad.
Steve Pemble
Bemidji
My response to Steve Pemble, an elected public official...
I am responding to a letter written in response by Mr.Steve Pemble on December 2, 2013. Mr. Pemble made the claim that his letter was a response to what I wrote about the need for a "21st Century Full Employment Act."
First of all, Mr. Pemble's letter was needlessly mean spirited; a personal attack.
Second, Mr. Pemble created an entire argument in response to what I wrote based on his own mis-characterization of what I wrote.
What I wrote was very clear.
I stated I believed a full employment act was needed which mandated the president and the Congress to work together to attain and maintain full employment.
Mr. Pemble claims I wrote that these politicians should mandate full employment; something quite different.
Mr. Pemble then went on to suggest that I should never run for political office because I lack the intelligence.
I would suggest that Mr. Pemble is either an example of the deceitful politicians holding public office in our country today or he has never learned to read. Reading implies being able to comprehend what it written.
The majority of the United States Senate voted for the "Full Employment Act of 1945" which used the same language I used. The majority of the U.S. House voted against the "Full Employment Act of 1945" after its primary author, Texas Congressman Wright Patman, was viciously attacked by those like Mr. Pemble who claimed the Act was something other than what it really was. Congressman Patman was accused of being a Communist and this was the beginning of the nightmare known as the "Red Scare" launched by Joe McCarthy.
I expect an apology from Mr. Pemble. An elected public official. I also expect him to state his opinion based on what I wrote in my letter of November 28, 2013--- "We need a full employment act" and not what he made up about my letter.
It is no wonder people don't want to bring their views forward when a public elected official like Mr. Pemble, would so viciously attack an individual based on his own fabricated misinformation.
While I have no intent of running for public office, it is because I don't want to associate with dishonest people like Mr. Pemble not Mr. Pemble's mean-spirited insinuation that I am too stupid to hold an elected public position--- after all, how intelligent does one have to be to hold public office if Mr. Pemble is an example of such qualification. It might be wise for the voters to send Mr. Pemble packing given his dishonesty or inability to read. No doubt Mr. Pemble has both a reading problem and lacks basic ethical integrity required to hold public elective office.
As for me giving politicians a bad name, Mr. Pemble; you have done this quite well all on your own without any help from me.
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
This was my Letter to the Editor...
Letter: We need a full employment act
By Alan L. Maki from Warroad on Nov 27, 2013 at 8:01pm
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/letter-we-need-full-employment-act
The article in the Oct. 25 Bemidji Pioneer headlined “Minimum wage discussion draws full house at City Hall” left out a very important aspect of what a living minimum wage should be based on.
Fact: Working people without jobs are going to be poor.
Fact: Working people paid poverty wages are going to be poor.
Seems to me a real living minimum wage tied to real cost of living factors is a basic and minimal requirement toward ending poverty with government assuming full responsibility for attaining and maintaining full employment which is so basic to ending poverty that it would seem that any politician talking about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when campaigning for election would be the very first, upon being elected, to introduce legislation requiring that the president and members of Congress mandate the responsibility for full employment to themselves lest they be viewed as hypocrites.
Instead of voting to fund militarism and wars which kill jobs the same way they kill people, we need to elect people to public office who will enact a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity.”
Alan L. Maki
Warroad, Minnesota
Response from Steve Pemble an elected public official...
Letter: Some issues are easy to resolve, if you don’t use your head
Posted on Dec 2, 2013 at 4:15pm
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/letter-some-issues-are-easy-resolve-if-you-dont-use-your-head
I just finished reading the letter from Alan Maki (Nov. 28) wanting to put an end to poverty. I thought, “yeah, I’m for that’! Mr. Maki is suggesting that politicians run on a platform of introducing a “21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”, where government would “assume full responsibility for attaining and maintaining full employment”.
I’m not sure if he is naïve, or just uniformed (or both). Does he honestly believe government can solve the unemployment issue by simply “mandating full employment”? Why didn’t I think of that. Some issues are so easy to resolve, if you don’t use your head.
A couple of quick notes for you Alan: 1. The government does not have any money. It gets its money from the producers in this country (through taxation). 2. If you haven’t been up on the news or your reading lately, this government has been currently spending about a $1 trillion more than it takes in with taxes each year (that $1T is created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve and passed on to us, the taxpayers, in the form of debt).
We are currently printing money to pay the interest on that debt (while adding more debt). So with that said, how do you expect to pay all the salaries in your “full employment” fantasyland? (remember, the government has no money of its own). I’m only to assume you would have the government “mandate all private businesses hire more people” since we now know the government can’t pay them (it is impossible to tax enough to make your fantasyland work). Are you a business owner? How would you handle that mandate? Please explain how that will work?
I know how it would end. My advice, Mr. Maki: Please don’t ever run for any political office; you’ll give politicians a bad name (wait, that was funny). I would also suggest brushing up on your economics just a tad.
Steve Pemble
Bemidji
My response to Steve Pemble, an elected public official...
I am responding to a letter written in response by Mr.Steve Pemble on December 2, 2013. Mr. Pemble made the claim that his letter was a response to what I wrote about the need for a "21st Century Full Employment Act."
First of all, Mr. Pemble's letter was needlessly mean spirited; a personal attack.
Second, Mr. Pemble created an entire argument in response to what I wrote based on his own mis-characterization of what I wrote.
What I wrote was very clear.
I stated I believed a full employment act was needed which mandated the president and the Congress to work together to attain and maintain full employment.
Mr. Pemble claims I wrote that these politicians should mandate full employment; something quite different.
Mr. Pemble then went on to suggest that I should never run for political office because I lack the intelligence.
I would suggest that Mr. Pemble is either an example of the deceitful politicians holding public office in our country today or he has never learned to read. Reading implies being able to comprehend what it written.
The majority of the United States Senate voted for the "Full Employment Act of 1945" which used the same language I used. The majority of the U.S. House voted against the "Full Employment Act of 1945" after its primary author, Texas Congressman Wright Patman, was viciously attacked by those like Mr. Pemble who claimed the Act was something other than what it really was. Congressman Patman was accused of being a Communist and this was the beginning of the nightmare known as the "Red Scare" launched by Joe McCarthy.
I expect an apology from Mr. Pemble. An elected public official. I also expect him to state his opinion based on what I wrote in my letter of November 28, 2013--- "We need a full employment act" and not what he made up about my letter.
It is no wonder people don't want to bring their views forward when a public elected official like Mr. Pemble, would so viciously attack an individual based on his own fabricated misinformation.
While I have no intent of running for public office, it is because I don't want to associate with dishonest people like Mr. Pemble not Mr. Pemble's mean-spirited insinuation that I am too stupid to hold an elected public position--- after all, how intelligent does one have to be to hold public office if Mr. Pemble is an example of such qualification. It might be wise for the voters to send Mr. Pemble packing given his dishonesty or inability to read. No doubt Mr. Pemble has both a reading problem and lacks basic ethical integrity required to hold public elective office.
As for me giving politicians a bad name, Mr. Pemble; you have done this quite well all on your own without any help from me.
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Letter: We need a full employment act
www.bemidjipioneer.com
The
article in the Oct. 25 Bemidji Pioneer headlined “Minimum wage
discussion draws full house at City Hall” left out a very important
aspect of what a living minimum wage should be based on. Fact: Working
