It's about a businessman - a job provider - who happens to have a permit to start an underground coal mine which will employ about 125 people. He attended a public hearing in an inner-city Birmingham neighborhood to hear what government officials, environmentalists and the public had to say about a proposed coal mine in their area. After listening for two hours to attendees and officials bash companies - actual job providers - he spoke. McElroy has his complete statement, but he finishes with this:
I got a permit to open up an underground coal mine that would employ probably 125 people. They’d be paid wages from $50,000 to $150,000 a year. We would consume probably $50 million to $60 million in consumables a year, putting more men to work. And my only idea today is to go home. What’s the use? I don’t know. I mean, I see these guys — I see them with tears in their eyes — looking for work. And if there’s so much opposition to these guys making a living, I feel like there’s no need in me putting out the effort to provide work for them. So as I stood against the wall here today, basically what I’ve decided is not to open the mine. I’m just quitting.
Thank you.
As if his statements weren't enough, you MUST read the comments on the post. Individuals sharing their similar stories of business men and women just saying 'no' to doing business - hiring people, purchasing supplies which leads to support jobs, paying taxes, creating a profit, contributing to their communities.
These are the stories media should be focused on. Rather than demonize people who want to (gasp!) pay people to work for them, we should be celebrating these job creators.
We should be encouraging them in their efforts and government should be asking how they can help - rather than looking for ways to shut them down, tax them more, impose more rules upon them and make them the source of all evil in the world.
Read the article and the comments - and then you'll know just how far from the American Dream we've actually come ... and then ask yourself what you're going to do to help put our country back on track.
1 comment:
This is a good read. I liked McElroy's response to his detractors and critics. This is an example of government at its very worst. The economy is in desperate need of businesses just like the mine McElroy wants to open, but just as soon as it looks like a business will get off the ground the government stops the flight and destroys the landing strip.
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