Editorial misguided

The Feb. 20 editorial in Hernando Today, "County must cut expenses to invest in primary industry infrastructure," has been on my mind for several weeks and has bothered me to the point that I must respond.

Your editorial's belief that capital infrastructure investment and reduction of a "bloated county government budget" as the conditions needed to bring primary industry and a prosperous economic future - is misguided.

The emphasis on such investment, as well as on government cutbacks, is disturbing, because the emphasis on workers, and on social services, has been left out of the formula. And by doing that, I contend we are ultimately doomed to failure.

New industry success does not mean communal success. It may only mean more profits for a select few while simultaneously affecting adversely our culture, our ability to communicate and to interact with each other or to improve our physical and spiritual health.

The market has prompted new forms of competition between counties in Florida as they seek to attract new capital, new businesses, new technologies and even housing growth. The problem is that local government, the business community and the press, urge favorable fiscal conditions for the businesses, but deregulation of the labor market. What then occurs is the downsizing of Social Security systems as the price to be paid for greater competitive advantage in the local markets. Workers rights and compensation, along with benefits, are usually endangered when this occurs. The potential for forming labor unions becomes nonexistent in such an economic atmosphere that we have today, as well. It never was good in Florida, anyway. New budgetary reduction policies by county and city governments, include cuts in social spending, worker furloughs and layoffs, often under pressure from banks, loaning institutions, even state and federal governments. Citizens, newspaper pundits and political parties also impose their pressures as well.

The importance of labor in achieving prosperity should not be underestimated. It can stimulate production and cultural exchange, too, but usually - in this budget-cutting climate and mindset - we create psychological instability for workers instead, difficulty in families being able to develop reasonable life-plans, including marriage, having children, planning for college for their children and even retirement. Again, the result of this short-term economic belt-tightening is man's long-term decline and the waste of social resources.

The current crisis of the economy, resulting in unemployment, marginalizes man even more. Prolonged unemployment, or dependency on long-term social services, undermines his freedoms, destroys creativity of the person, his family and even of his/her social relationships.

This is just a reminder to our business chamber and newspaper friends, and especially the county commissioners, who will be making budget cuts and layoff decisions, that even though their objective and center of attention is on economic growth, the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is "man." That should be the focus of all economic planning and social life. Without integrating man into our economic and social plans, we ultimately doom our quality of life. Lowering worker protections and rights, or abandoning fair salaries and benefits, in order to increase the county's competitiveness, hinders the long-term goal of lasting development in a community and our society.

I urge our political, business and newspaper leaders to tread carefully. This requires deep reflection on the meaning of what a sound economy means, as well as a deep revision of what we think now as "development."

Our ecological, moral, cultural and spiritual health, requires this contemplation and cautionary action, in order to make some profound and far-sighted necessary revisions and changes in the way we live.

Brian P. Moore

Spring Hill