Inefficient

Business owners and farmers know that for an enterprise to be successful, it must be run efficiently. No room exists for unnecessary expenses or wasted efforts. The burden that has been placed on our businesses and farms by governments at all levels in recent decades is a tragedy, especially in rural America.

For example, it costs between $140 billion and $215 billion a year for businesses to comply with IRS rules and file a tax return, according to the Washington Post in a 2018 article. This cost has accelerated significantly over the years, primarily because of the increasing complexity of the tax code. From the time the income tax was passed in 1913 to 1940, the code was just a handful of pages and the average American had no problem filing a return. From about 1940 to 1950, the code grew to over 10,000 pages, and is approaching 80,000 in 2021. This gross inefficiency costs us an untold loss of productivity and makes us less competitive with overseas firms; thus, we lose more American jobs to foreign competition every year.

Another example: I recently wrote a column about the burden of government regulation on our business community, noting that from 1970 to 2017, the number of words in the Code of Federal Regulations nearly tripled from 35 million to over 103 million, according to a 2019 article published on Forbes.com, authored by Adam A. Millsap. His study showed that a 10% increase in regulation increases consumer prices by 1%. Another inefficiency that American businesses cannot afford.

Additionally, government programs like the Small Business Administration (SBA) are structured such that rural businesses have a difficult time qualifying and paying all the costs. For example, if I want the SBA to help me finance a new building or addition in which to house my business, I must hire a professional engineer and a professional architect and pay union wages to construct it, accelerating the costs dramatically. The program is nearly worthless in Bourbon County.

How do inefficiencies disproportionately impact rural America? The additional costs due to inefficiencies drives industry consolidation to save overhead costs. Invariably, that means shutting down branch offices in lower population areas or selling the business to a larger entity. Bourbon County experienced that pain directly when we lost Western Insurance.

We cannot continue to absorb the growth in these government inefficiencies. We have to look to simplify the way we raise revenue and lower the government burden for rural Americans. Our economic future and our rural way of life depend on it.

Two years ago, Kate’s mother, Ann, insisted on hosting the entire Thanksgiving meal.

That holiday, everyone knew, belonged to Kate’s sister, Paula, who had amassed plate ware for 30+ and decorated with every turkey adornment imaginable.

When Ann was reminded of such, she put her foot down. “I might be old”—65—“but I’m not that old.” This wasn’t like their mother, normally a “go-along” type person, so the decision was made. Ann would host.

Kate and her four sisters offered to bring the side dishes. No. Ann had it all under control. Fearing the worst, the girls divvied up the turkey accompaniments anyway. Imagine their surprise when Ann proudly placed her lone casserole dish in the middle of the table, nonplussed by the numerous sides, removed its lid and told everyone to dig in.

Speechless stares met the beanie-weenies soaked in barbeque sauce. When grandkids opened their mouths to comment, they were met with knee-squeezes under the table.

I was with a group of friends when the story was told. Kate is a friend of my friend, Diana, who kept repeating “Beanie-weenies” while shaking her head.

We, of course, thought the incident hysterical until Diana continued. No one knew it then, but Ann was showing early stages of Alzheimers.

Our laughter stopped as three of the six of us had deceased parents who had suffered from this disease.

Ann declined rapidly, and the following Thanksgiving, as the family gathered in Paula’s home, Ann stared into space, occasionally muttering something unintelligible but following that with a lucid memory from the past.

Her relatives showed compassion as they loved her unconditionally. Matthew 9:36 (NLT) says that “When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Recently, my granddaughter, Mo, was with her parents, driving to Iowa, when they, on a whim, exited to find a restaurant advertised on a highway billboard. The restaurant was not close to the exit, but “for some reason” they drove twenty minutes, ending up at a casino where the restaurant was located.

After they ate and were leaving, Mo noticed an elderly woman in a wheelchair, alone and against a wall. Mo walked over to her and asked if she was okay. She was not. Her daughter, she said, had abandoned her thirty minutes before and not returned. Mo reassured the woman, holding her hand until the daughter appeared and received a scolding from her mother. “I can’t believe you left me and drove off!”

The daughter assured her mother that she had told her mom that she was going to the ATM machine, not outside, and that she was gone only 10 minutes. The elderly woman would hear none of it and continued to accuse her daughter. Mo pulled the daughter aside and offered to pray for her. The daughter began crying, sharing that her mother had early stages of Alzheimers and that she, the daughter, had become her mom’s verbal punching bag.

Mo told her that God was allowing her to go through this for a reason, and the day would come when she no longer would have her mother with her, but she always would know that she had been a compassionate, patient, loving daughter.

Mo prayed, the daughter gave her a long hug, and my granddaughter left.

This past week, I participated in a “Walk for Alzheimers” fundraiser in Florida where I learned that 5.8 million Americans are living with this illness, a number that is projected to nearly triple to 14 million people by 2060.

There is a good chance that we all will know someone suffering from this dreaded disease.

How will we respond? Hopefully, the same as Ann’s family. Hopefully, the way Mo did. In other words, the way Jesus did.