Why is this such a huge government thing? The naming of a program or bill up for consideration or being implemented after another party line vote creating mandates or, worse, laws that limit or take away or give special rights to voting blocks?

I mean, especially when our betters in government and “community leadership” take all that time to name bills and departments and mandates (when they aren’t renaming them for political attacks on the other party) so dramatically, woke or pleasant only to have said projects and departments deliver
180 degree opposite results.

What I’ve found over my decades is simpler. Changing the wording of a problem never solves the problem.

I could offers hundreds of examples. Or you could read “Atlas Shrugged” or the “Left Behind” series for funny — or frightening — fiction-based examples. But all one needs is to recall the recent Inflation Reduction Act or infamous Affordable Care Act. The Inflation Reduction Act was named that because calling it the Global Warming Mandate Taking Away Freedom Act isn’t quite as public-acceptance ready. But we’re getting there. As for Obamacare, take what they said they’d save you and multiply it by four and add it to your costs.

When it comes to renaming acts I’ll share with you the Defense of Marriage Act or Florida’s recent “Don’t Say ….. Act,” neither of which were so named. Those were renamed to smear conservatives even though the first was signed into law by President Bill Clinton because he didn’t want to pay benefits to government employees for certain reasons. As for the Florida bill, it was simply about age-appropriate education parameters. But what does that matter when it comes to scoring political points?

As former President Barack Obama opined: “It’s just words.” Yet to the left, words are also weapons and do harm. So I’ll take them at their word. Words can indeed be dangerous. Especially when only one side controls them.

When it comes to words, let’s start with some big ones: illegal immigrants. Simply put, they are. But we can’t say that because they’re undocumented or whatever the next politically correct term is. We write special laws granting them special rights while giving them untold trillions, which only makes the problem worse because it only increases the desire for illegals to come here. Creating danger for them and a crisis for us. And I can’t even get started on the language demands of our education system related to every political topic or personal preference at every level. How can anyone believe this is bettering education of our younger generation when every statistic shows we’re failing them at every turn?

I guess that’s the price we all must pay to be an equal citizen of the world in a country where the rights of the individual made it the greatest country on the planet. Every example I’ve provided has made the problems for the affected individuals worse. There might be some mild successes here and there, as all governments are prone to brag on while ignoring the actual problem is getting worse. But let’s be honest. How many problems have you seen in which governments want to solve it to the point of no longer needing the law or department or power related to the problem? None. Frankly, EVERY government program should have obsolescence as its top priority because it solved the problem it was created to solve.

Which brings me to the reason for this column. And, yes, I saw it on the source of many of today’s problems and, ironically, the solutions and opinions on every problem known to mankind (if I can still say that): Facebook.

There’s a local survey the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County should have volumes of information on already: homelessness. Oops, my bad and profuse apologies. It’s HOUSELESSNESS. Houselessness? To stay on point, it does sound more inclusive. Lots of folks are houseless. But to also stay on point it only addresses business problems resulting from the homeless population. In my 23 years of living here, I can answer the gist of any homeless survey: Everyone has experienced adverse effects from the homeless problem in our area.

Seriously, no one individually or in business has brought up these problems before? Yet, renaming the problem will bring solutions? How can this survey provide insights our communities don’t already have?

Homelessness has myriad problems and affects us all. But treating symptoms never addresses the causes. That’s for the pharma-industrial complex. Then again, too many of our community leaders prefer complexities to actual solutions as they play Wordle with real-world problems. Like most players, they never get the answer right.

Then again, I can’t wait for our local “leaders” to address the millionaire-lessness of small business owners. I’d gladly add my name to that survey, inappropriate as the question is.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.