Wednesday, November 29, 2017

As Economy Slides Schisms Heal Maybe

This will never happen in the realm of Lincoln history, between the State Historic Preservation Agency, the Illinois State Historical Society, the historians who take sides on whether Mary Todd Lincoln was aware of her actions or if she was suffering from Diabetes, whether her letters to family in the south included military secrets or not, and so on.

The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce (GSCC), according to the article in the Illinois State Journal-Register, has endorsed consolidating efforts to develop the local economy. The caveat is that it "would be up to individual investors," whatever that means.

The city gives $100,000 to the GSCC annually. One online commenter said it was at the expense of the overtime police budget. It's bound to be at the expense of someone.

Consolidation of economic development efforts is a huge opportunity for a big money grab. Some people will get hired at exorbitant salaries, probably kicking some coin under the table for the big favor. Hey, it's Illinois, after all.

The ebb and flow of schisms where large sums of public money are concerned is starting to smell a little contrived, but such a long con job would require a team effort among some very safely entrenched families, not just within the local area, but the whole state.

Maybe my imagination is running away from me. We were all taught as children to treat others as we would want them to treat us, so naturally, I assumed that people actually did that. Naively I thought Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism was just that, a philosophy, and not the reality of human behavior where self-service and self-preservation always supersede altruism.