The article, “Government has to make choices families, businesses don’t” was written by the associate editor of The State, Cindi Ross Scoppe. Cindi Ross Scoppe has long been an advocate of bigger government and higher taxes. the article was posted on January 22nd, 2009, on the website for the Columbia, SC based newspaper, The State. This article is directed towards residents of South Carolina, but it can also be applied to a general audience.
Scoppe wrote the article to enlighten her audience to the fact that the government and families or small businesses are very different in the way they have to handle their finances. Many people try to use analogies comparing government economic issues to family or business problems in order to try and understand the issues that the government has. However, Scoppe points out that it is important not to try to compare them because they forget that the government is trying to make decisions for the good of the entire society and not just one family or business. This difference causes the decision making process to be infinitely more complex for the government and many people try to ignore that fact. Scoppe also gives many examples of questions that the government faces when thinking of its economic issues that families and small businesses never have to think about. Scoppe also writes this article, I think, to defend the government from people questioning it about why they don’t “just do this” to fix the economy because it worked for their father, mother, uncle, etc.
