You Are Entering…

By Jerry Stewart

I was checking my records this last week and, believe it or not, I’ve been bringing you this weekly money report now for almost 10 years. Wow! If you’ve been listening each week, you know that my reports have basically two overriding themes. First, watch your money carefully because there’s always someone out there willing to take it from you. And second, I don’t like paying taxes. You say, "any taxes?" Of course, we have to pay some taxes to allow our government agencies to function. But, I believe this one thing is true – if you give any government agency too much money they will find a way to waste it.

Over my years of professional service, I’ve spoken with many people who are heads of departments within government agencies. I’ve heard over and over that when they are given a yearly budget of funds, that if in that year they don’t spend all of those funds, chances are more than just probable that their budget the next year will be cut. So they spend it. And if you doubt this idea of government waste just listen to this.

Recently, my wife and I were on vacation travelling down the Pacific coastline. As we entered the state of Oregon and came upon a small town I caught a glimpse of a sign – it was a picture of a stick man about to be washed over by a giant wave, and above this drawing the sign said, "You are entering a Tsunami hazard zone". I said to my wife, "did you see that sign"?

As we entered the town and stopped for lunch, I looked around. Everybody was going about their daily business. No one seemed concerned that they were living in a Tsunami hazard zone.

Well, as we left that town, guess what I saw? Yep, another sign, "You are leaving a Tsunami hazard zone". So here’s the way it went for the next number of hours – as we entered every little town along that Oregon coast, upon entering and leaving every little town there were these signs, a total of 4 for each town, warning that I was in a Tsunami hazard zone. So, my accounting brain began to do some calculations. Those signs were pretty nice. Must’ve cost at least $500 a piece to make. Then by the time you get a couple of government workers with their post hole digger, their concrete, their traffic controller, etc, each of those signs to build and install must’ve cost about $1000 – times 4 equals about $4,000, more or less, for each town. Multiply that by the tens and tens of little towns along that coast and you’ve easily spent perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars to warn people about the possibility of a Tsunami in Oregon. Now, do you really think that was necessary? Sounds like a waste of money to me. Nope, I don’t like paying too much taxes. Do you?

Well, that’s all for now. I’m Jerry Stewart saying goodbye for now. Until next time don’t forget – It’s Your Money!