THIS is the time for those who have always believed they were right, with relation to the composition of the government, to reinforce their salient points. Those who say GovGuam is too big will advocate personnel and pay cuts while those who say businesses are not paying their fair share will advocate such revenue enhancements.
This eternal tussle between labor and capital has been going on since the days of Adam Smith, who penned “wealth of Nations.” He said that the selfishness of the individual is conducive to society’s welfare, “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”
At the individual level, we could say that we don’t have enough selfishness (due to an undiversified economy) where the private individual is motivated to do well on Guam and on the macro level, we could say that the government itself is selfish and has grown creating needless positions and bureaucratic nightmares (over many years).
At the same time, Smith advocated the protection of the worker, the farmer, the consumer and society at large besides public education when he said, “… besides, an instructed and intelligent person, is always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one” (which means if we were not ignorant, we wouldn’t have gone into Iraq.)
The truth lies somewhere in the middle. GovGuam is too big for a population of 150,000-170,000. At the same time, wages are low for workers who get paid more for the same job elsewhere (besides a lower cost-of-living).
The question is, what’s the first move?
Education as a priority is a good slogan so Guam’s machines got all the “supporters” into education one way or another besides healthcare (GMH remains a dumping ground), and public safety (which includes the judiciary, another favorite playground). These politicos have “made” education a priority but in the process shortchanged the real education that needs to go on, thereby producing a not-so instructed and intelligent class.

MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam