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10/23/2007
Industriousness - the Wisconsin Way?
Or is The Wisconsin Way ever more and bigger government? Last night I got my dose of The Wisconsin Way – the self-described “public conversation about lowering property taxes and ensuring excellence in public service.”
This coalition of the Wisconsin Counties Association, WEAC, the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association and Wood Communications Group is traveling the state listening to people, looking for solutions to a declining tax base and increasing needs for services.
They say they’re going to listen to folks, submit the data and ideas to a bunch of learned policy and economics types, then make the rounds once again to vet the resulting report.
My first reaction is pretty suspicious – all of us learned taxpayers and service users (about 120 in the crowd last night) pontificating about what’s wrong with the system – and what we’d do to make it right. Your typical stuff.
And then there was Emily Matthews, a modest, petite, white-haired woman living with her family on a 30-acre farm in the town of Schleswig, in Manitowoc County and near the city of Kiel.
“More important than a 21st century work force is a work ethic. We need people who know how to work – and a work ethic comes not from the government, but from family.” Emily and her husband expect each of their five children to begin work at age 12 – a paper route, for example. She said she believes too many of us have an attitude of entitlement – or even an attitude of getting paid for doing nothing.
Emily’s 17 year-old son is admired in his job – and is appreciated for the encouragement he offers to older workers to do their jobs. No sense of entitlement there.
Emily works as an emergency room nurse and sees the poor coming to the ER for treatment simply because it’s not convenient to make a doctor’s appointment… “they can’t be bothered.” She’s frustrated at her perception of Wisconsin as a “welfare magnet.”
More Emilyisms
“Seems like there’s lots of public officials here – I’m the taxpayer that pays all of you.”
“Our ancestors came here to pursue happiness – and “pursue” infers work.”
“We know what we need – maybe there’s a confusion between needs and wants.”
“I resent the idea that taxpayers are thought to be an endless pocket of cash.”
Me too Emily. I wanted to stand up and cheer.
More Wisconsin Way forums – coming your Way. Check the website for location, directions and details.
October 30, Green Bay
November 1, Superior
November 6, Oshkosh
November 8, Waukesha
November 13, Janesville
November 27, Milwaukee
December 4, Kenosha
December 6, Madison
COMMENTS
I was there last night as well Jo. While there were a lot of good points brought up, I'm not sure there was a lot of substance to the discussions. It will be very interesting to see how Wisconsin Way uses all the input they're getting. That's if they use it at all, of course.
Right now it feels like a bit of a black hole for public complaints about government. They certainly put on a good show though...
Adam Delikowski (Tue Oct 23 10:03:04 2007)
Hats off to Emily. Our society has increasingly turned itself over to an area of self entiltement, of expecting to receive with little to no effort, thought, or self initiative involved. And yes I fully agree that this is the responsiblity of parents as we raise our children. Yes of course I want my children to have more and better than myself but I don't think that it should be handed down on silver platter for them to take and abuse. To Emily "Hats Off"; to those of us who allow our children that sense of self entitlement, shame on you. The time to start correcting our missteps as parents is now.
Chuck Willinger (Wed Oct 31 18:37:41 2007)
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