The Public Trough: The Defeat of “Jaws II”

Does the defeat of Howard Jarvis’s Proposition 9 on June 3 in California signal the end of the tax revolt? Although most of the national media comment on the vote is to exactly that effect, I still believe that the tax revolt is alive and well and will resurface with a vengeance in November. Indeed, to one way of thinking, the defeat of Prop. 9 may be a blessing in disguise.

As you may remember, the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978 was widely hailed as the opening salvo of the tax revolt. Yet the November 1978 elections gave little evidence of this. The reason was that the liberal politicians, having been put on notice by the passage of Prop. 13 that voters were concerned about high taxes, were able to switch gears rhetorically and portray themselves as newly converted true believers in tax cutting. Unfortunately, they were successful and achieved reelection. But they immediately thereafter returned to their old ways. My feeling is that this year, with the defeat of Prop. 9, they may be lulled into a false sense of security and reap a delayed whirlwind from Prop. 13.

I continue to believe that by November people will be so fed up with the economic situation that they will strike back the only way they know how—through the ballot box. And the victims will be incumbents across the board. Consider this fact: Since 1972 average weekly earnings for private sector workers have increased by 68.1 percent, from $136.90 per week to $230.16, while the real earnings of these workers (measured in 1967 dollars) have fallen 13.2 percent, from $109.26 per week to $94.78. How much longer can this continue before people rise up against the system?

All across this country there is an incredible discontent with government. On a recent trip across the state of Iowa I had the opportunity to talk with businessmen, workers, and local government officials about their feelings. The level of their resentment of government paperwork, rules, red tape, inconsistency, arbitrariness, and lack of concern for individuals attempting to cope with the system was very high. Small town mayors described to me how it takes seven to eight years to get a sewage treatment plant built—six to seven years to fill out the paperwork and one year to build the plant. Small businessmen told me about OSHA inspectors who insist upon adherence to standards for machinery noise that the present level of technology is unable to meet at any price, about OSHA’s unwillingness to work with businessmen in good faith efforts to meet goals of work safety at a reasonable cost, and about its capricious disregard for consistency and reasonableness. And I heard from average people who are concerned for their own futures and those of their children in a time of declining economic growth and declining expectations.

One of the things which has made our country great is the belief that no matter how “bad off” a person is, his children’s future will probably be better. Now, people are not so sure that’s true any longer. They find that because of newly inflated costs, they cannot send their children to the colleges they went to themselves; they find their life’s savings eroding from inflation; they find themselves increasingly priced-out of the housing market, with the expectation that their children may never be able to own a house; and they are frustrated, as they are buffeted between OPEC, the federal government, big companies, and insidious inflation, at their inability to control their own lives.

There is an old adage that the most dangerous person alive is the person who has lost all hope, for he has nothing left to lose. I really feel that people are approaching this point en masse. Unless their concerns are dealt with, unless their faith in progress is restored, it may build up pressure which can no longer be controlled by present institutions. The great danger, of course, is that people, not knowing where to turn, may easily be turned down the wrong path.

It is therefore more critically important than ever that libertarians define the terms of the political debate and press the point that government is the fundamental source of our problems. And our message must be positive: that people can regain control of their lives and build a future for themselves and their families. If we can do this, we will have tapped into the most powerful political force in America, and there will be nothing that we cannot accomplish.