In the beginning of the industrial revolution much needed to be learned by those who flocked to the factories to do what they had never done before. Seeking wages in actual money instead of working the farm for food and shelter but not much actual money many thought they would find a better life. In truth these factories created slums and a new kind of slavery and poverty. It was the recognition of these problems and the exploitation of workers that breaded the other extremes of communism and socialism. Pope Pius XII recognized these extremes and tried to counteract this with declaring the feast of St. Joseph, the worker, on the same day of the communist feast day, May 1^st. Prior to Pope Pius XII, Pope Leo XIII saw the problem as being a just wage and wrote often about it. The exploitation of workers by the wealthy was the cause of the new forms of governments in the 20^th century and in fact, their failure.

A just wage is not how much one makes but how much what he makes can buy. The immoral rich know this and are willing to give more money providing that money buys less of their own products. The end result is that the workers does not change his earning power at all.

Companies also have to be protected so that they can get a just days work for what they pay. And a nation of good workers is a good nation. For this reason people should learn the value of work at a young age. For this reason I have not given a minimum age or wage so that children can learn the value of work. Nonetheless, some laws should be made so that children are not used and abused.

Everyone should learn to use his hands in hard work just to know the value and pride of good hard work, even those who will end up teachers or doctors or engineers. Everyone at an early age should learn a trade with the hands because even those who use the mind will find joy in making thing grow or building things or fixing things.

To help businesses compete in the world and at the same time give the best wages in the world every attempt by the government will be made to help business. Even though it may seem so, no business in any country actually pays any tax. For when there is a business tax on an product that tax is just passed on to the consumer. Let me explain this way for I owned many businesses and managed many others. If my costs of producing a product is $10.00 and I want to make a profit of 10% I will charge $11.00 for my product. If the government raises my tax by $1.00 I will make more money than before. Now my costs are $11.00 and I will add 10% and so my profit will be $1.10 instead of $1:00.

Again when a man who owns a business leaves his money in the business to buy more raw material or to hire more people or to expand or to modernize, this is not a profit and therefore should not be taxed. If however, he takes out money for his own good and not the good of the business it should be taxed. The most valued asset of a good business is ready cash and yet in most tax structures a business cannot afford to keep cash without it being taxed. Therefore it puts its cash into unneeded inventory and always suffers from a cash flow problem. This is not good for a nation.

At one time I did not believe in income tax because I believed that a man should not be punished for hard work. But in all truth the government gave me the knowledge, the freedom and the opportunity to make a living and has a right to get its investment in me back.

I have never been against a value added tax because excessive consumption should be discouraged but savings encouraged. For the sake of the poor such things as food, water, electric, gas and medical products should never be taxed. The tax on these things can be made up by taxing at a higher rate things like alcohol, tobacco, and other vices or non essentials.

I talk about tax in this commentary because everything possible must be done to give companies the chance to pay a just wage.