“Moment Of Clarity”  
Downward Wisconsin 
by Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.
November 19, 2011 

We used to make things here in Wisconsin. 

We made machine tools in  Milwaukee, cars in Kenosha and ships in Sheboygan.  We mined iron in the  north and lead in the south.  We made cheese, we made brats, we made beer,  and we even made napkins to clean up what we spilled.  And we made  money. 

The original war on poverty was a private, mercenary affair.   Men like Harnishfeger, Allis, Chalmers, Kohler, Kearney, Trecker, Modine, Case,  Mead, Falk, Allen, Bradley, Cutler, Hammer, Bucyrus, Harley, Davidson, Pabst,  and Miller lifted millions up from subsistence living to middle class  comfort.  They did it - not “Fighting Bob” La Follette or any of the  politicians who came along later to take the credit and rake a piece of the  action through the steepest progressive scheme in the nation.   

Those old geezers with the beards cured poverty by putting people to  work. Generations of Wisconsinites learned trades and mastered them in the  factories, breweries, mills, foundries, and shipyards those capitalists built  with their hands.  Thousands of small businesses supplied these industrial  giants, and tens of thousands of proprietors and professionals provided all of  the services that all those other families needed to live well.  The wealth  got spread around plenty.    

The profits generated  by our great industrialists funded charities, the arts, education, libraries,  museums, parks, and community development associations.  Taxes on their  profits, property, and payrolls built our schools, roads, bridges, and the  safety net that Wisconsin’s progressives are still taking credit for, as if the  money came from their council meetings.  The offering plates in churches of  every denomination were filled with money left over from company paychecks that  were made possible because a few bold young men risked it all and got  rich.  Don’t thank God for them; thank them that you learned about  God. 

Their wealth pales in comparison to the wealth they created for  millions and millions of other Wisconsin families.  Those with an  appreciation for the immeasurable contributions of Wisconsin’s industrial icons  of 1910 will find the list of Wisconsin’s top ten employers of 2010  appalling:  

Walmart, University of Wisconsin–Madison,  Milwaukee Public Schools, U.S. Postal Service, Wisconsin Department of  Corrections, Menards, Marshfield Clinic, Aurora Health Care, City of Milwaukee,  and Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. 

This is what a  century of progressivism will get you.  Wisconsin is the birthplace of the  progressive movement, the home of the Socialist Party, the first state to allow  public sector unions, the cradle of environmental activism, a liberal fortress  walled off against common sense for decades.  Their motto, Forward  Wisconsin, should be changed to Downward Wisconsin if truth in advertising  applies to slogans. 

There is no shortage of activists, advocates, and  agitators in this State.  If government were the answer to our problems, we  would have no problems.  The very same people – or people just like them –  who picketed, struck, sued, taxed, and regulated our great companies out of this  state are now complaining about the unemployment and poverty that they have  brought upon themselves.  They got rid of those old rich white guys and  replaced them with…nothing. 

Wisconsin ranks 47th in the rate of new  business formation.  We are one of the worst states for native college  graduate exodus; our brightest and most ambitions graduates leave to seek their  fortunes elsewhere.  Why shouldn’t they?  Our tax rates are among the  worst in the nation and our business climate, perpetually in the bottom of the  rankings, has only recently moved up thanks to a Governor who now faces a recall  for his trouble. 

In 1970, the new environmental movement joined  unions and socialists in a coordinated effort to demonize industry.  When I  was in college, the ranting against “polluting profiteers” was like white noise  – always there.  They won, and here is the price of their victory: in 1970,  manufacturers paid 18.2% of Wisconsin’s property taxes – the major source of  school funding - and in 2010 those who remained paid 3.7%. 

So who  is it that caused the funding crisis in our schools and the skyrocketing tax  rates on our homes?  It is the same ignoramuses who are sitting on bridges,  pooping on things, and passing around recall petitions.  The unemployed  26-year old in the hemp hat looking for sympathy might look instead for some  inspiration from Jerome I. Case, who started his agricultural equipment business  at the age of 21, miraculously without an iPhone 4s. 

Mr. Case got  rich by asking people what they want and making it for them.  He did not  get rich by telling people what he wanted and waiting for them to do something  about it.  If you want to declare war on your own poverty, memorize  that.     

In the last decade alone we have  lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs in this state – over 25%.  And it’s not  just jobs that have been lost; the companies that provided them are gone.   Those jobs are not coming back, no matter how long we extend unemployment  benefits pretending they are.  The 450,000 people who still work in  manufacturing in Wisconsin are damn good it at, but we are now outnumbered by  people who work for government.  A significant number of the latter are  tasked with taxing, regulating, and generally harassing the former.  While  it is true that many manufacturers chased low-wage opportunities on their own,  many more were driven out of the state by the increasing cost of doing business  here. 

It is a myth that unions improve wages.  If you consider only  the 1,000 jobs in a closed shop, you might think an average union wage is, say,  $30/hr.  But if you add in the zero wages of the 10,000 jobs lost in  companies chased out by union harassment, the average of all 11,000 union  workers is reduced to $2.72/hr.  Do you know the average wage of union iron  miners in this state?  Zero.  And the left is fighting hard to keep it  that way in Northern Wisconsin - looking out for the working man, they call  it.    

It is also a myth that free trade causes job  losses.  Over the past three years, U.S. manufacturers sold $70 billion  more goods to our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners than we bought from  them.  Conversely, we suffered a $1.3 trillion trade deficit with countries  where no FTA’s exist.  I doubt that kids are going to learn that in our  government-union monopoly schools – it doesn’t fit the narrative. 

No one  wants to see another person suffer in poverty, and liberty is the best economic  policy there is.  The great industrialists of Wisconsin took less than a  generation to lift millions up to a life of dignity, pride, prosperity and good  will.  When enterprise was free and government was limited, we all  prospered. 

Those great men of industry were not anointed at birth  to be rich; they rose from nothing to great wealth through their own hard work  and the value they added to their employees and their customers through choice,  competition, and voluntary exchange.  That is the only sure path to real  prosperity; the debt economy is a temporary illusion. 

Look again  at the list of our famous industrialists and the list of our current  employers.  Who would you wish your child or grandchild to grow up to  be?  Who do you think will do more good on this earth – Jerome I Case and  his tractors, or the Coordinator of Supplier Diversity at MPS. 

If  you chose MPS, then apply now – that job is open, and it pays up to $72,000 plus  benefits and early retirement.  Go in peace and save the world.  Me,  I’m going with the tractor guy.   

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.   Click here to visit Tim’s website  to find your moment.