Or so offers my golf buddy Mark. I thought it was great insight from a man that has so few . He’s the good friend that gets hammered at home for being a conservative, apparently the result of spending too much time with me. Yet I slam him for being liberal. You know he hasn’t yet figured out that if you stand in the middle of the road, you get hit by cars going both ways! Ironic that this itself is common sense. Then again, I must admit that he is a great guy…a smart man who spent a worthy career in public service, and his comment on common sense resonated with me. A fundamental of life, which is unfortunately often overlooked is:

WORDS AND ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

Yes, Kaepernick has the right to his “protest” and many defend such (not me, son of a disabled war veteran). But surprise…NFL owners have the right not to hire him. Hmm…

San Francisco enacted a surtax on business with revenues over $50 million, and the revenues generated will go to fund the homeless in their proud to be sanctuary city. The result, five years forward, will be more homelessness and less business startups. If such is the intent of the people, then a perfect strategy. If not, then “not so much.”

I will admit I am very biased with my agenda of pro-industry in general, and specifically our PVF sector; primarily because we are job creators. A nation must have jobs, and to do so, a nation or state must have job creators. As economist Art Laffer said, “you can’t love jobs and hate job creators.” Yet we seem to be public enemy number one.

It would be easy to cast me as the defender of the wealthy. Yes, as that would be the logical role of a kid whose early years were in public housing…NOTE: Sarcasm. However, I feel I am actually defending the job creators. Yes, those with wealth do create jobs; and the creation of those jobs and that investment certainly further enhances their own wealth, but doesn’t it help everybody? The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker all create anywhere from 3.5 to 7.1 subsequent service jobs for every manufacturing/industrial job. Remember, it has been said that for a nation to be great, it must make things and must make the machines that make things.

To this point, as I previously informed in these columns, over $200 million of personal funds were spent in the Illinois gubernatorial race, with JB Pritzker, of Pritzker fame, prevailing. He ran on the platform of making the wealthy pay their “fair share.” The presumption, of course, is that they are not. As he is fast tracking a progressive state income tax to the legislature, he is the self-appointed Robin Hood of the middle class. After all, who better to advocate for the middle class than a billionaire who has never had a real job! A “trustafarian,” if you will. His commercials point out that only 3 percent of Illinois households make over $250,000, suggesting that in a democracy where a majority rules, 97 percent of the voters should vote in favor of the progressive tax on those nasty rich…yep, said another way…those job creators. Appealing to a majority, most of whom don’t research or think for themselves, the legislature successful passed the ability to rewrite the State Constitution to allow for progressive state income, a tax, which is currently prohibited by State Constitution. There are two central questions not posed in this infomercial:

1. What percent of the state’s jobs are created by those 3 percent?
2. Why are only 3 percent of the households in a state with these resources generating $250 thousand a year in household income? (Note: Two income household.)

The answer is the investing wealthy have fled the state. They have fled in anticipation of more short-sighted, punitive regulations, precisely as the ones our governor is now proposing. Our state has efficiently castigated the job creators and labeled them as public enemy number one. The denunciation of capitalism and the label of one percenter is causing many job creators to tap out. This is good for no one. In the next census it is expected that Illinois will lose two congressional seats due to population decline. Our new governor would be well served to consider the following:

“Job creation requires a business friendly environment with a tax structure that is not punitive and a state government designed for efficient use of fewer tax dollars.” —Ken Blackwell

While this column is an extension to my previous, and further while it may be Illinois-centric, other states are moving in the same direction. In addition to the tax increase already noted, consider the following being proposed by our governor:

Doubling of the gasoline tax from the current 19 cents to 38 cents per gallon!

Parking garage tax increase from the current 30 to 39...40 percent tax for garage parking!

Mandatory that public companies headquartered in the State of Illinois have at least one female, African American and Latino on their Board of Directors…note mandated by law!

Mandated one week paid sick time for all employees in addition to existing vacation and other benefits.

Make it illegal to ask applicants their salary history.

Outlaw all fossil fuels within the next 30 years. Note: All fossil fuel gone!

Etc., etc., etc., oh dear God help us all.

We will couple this with legalization of casino gambling, recreational marijuana, sports betting and then apply the approximate “sin taxes.”

To frame the current landscape in a city and state with hundreds of unfunded liabilities, and a cascading bond rating we just passed a remarkable $40 billion operating budget and another…get this…$45 billion capital spending program — not a single mention of structural cost reforms.

Dear Governor,

Poet Laureate Maya Angelou wrote:

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

You are making our employers…our very job creators…feel unwelcomed! Your fix to our significant financial trouble is: legalize pot, legalize gambling, legislate more taxes to not the job creators, but to everyone!

Governor take a few hundred out of your billions and “buy a clue.” Alex, I’ll take insolvency for $200. Answer: Illinois!

“NEVER try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.” —George Bernard Shaw