After reading Cindi Scoppe’s article posted on The State.com I wanted to answer all of her questions, but realized that I was in the same situation as our state legislators. I had no answers, no solutions to our state economic crisis. As a college student I hope there are no cuts in scholarships, but I realize there will be no jobs for us when we graduate if the number of highly successful and experienced workers seeking employment continues to rise with layoffs. Since my sister is entering the teaching profession I was disappointed to hear of state teacher salary freezes, but on the other hand it is a blessing to have steady employment.
I agree with Scoppe on the concept that more furloughs and fewer layoffs will at least leave workers with a job to return to when the economy improves. Along with Scoppe, and every American, I must question the whole bonus process of every organization and business. These funds are to stimulate the economy, yet those receiving the largest financial bonus appear to be those who invest in their own wealth not spending to stimulate the economy. All of these questions brought to my mind, and written in Scoppe’s post are more hypothetical than direct; but they are directed at all citizens of South Carolina. She is not speaking just to the legislators or residents of our state capital, but she is crying out for all of us to understand the process of our state budget. I have read “Government has to make choices families, businesses don’t” over and over and I am still unclear if Scoppe is telling us, the people of SC, that she feels our legislative body does or does not possess common sense in dealing with our economic crisis. Scoppe has let us know that it is not a time to compare our basic household budget with that of the state, but more than that she has removed the condescending analogies from the topic of budget and requested that we all look at the whole picture and do our part to help.
Cindi Scoppe is an editor at The State; and therefore, is stating her personal opinion with approval from her publisher; so there are a greater number of questions and answers not mentioned in this article that affect SC’s economic status. The arguments, over which economic measures will best stimulate our economy, while keeping us out of debt, will continue since each district represented by a legislator has a unique perspective of spending and budgeting.
