It’s not government’s responsibility to employ people.

Granted, government needs employees to carry out its basic functions and provide services to citizens.

But it does not exist to create and provide publicly-funded jobs. And the jobs government does provide are by no means sacred.

When the time comes to cut, consolidate or contract out for services in order to save tax money or avoid tax increases, there are those who oppose these efforts because they don’t want anybody to lose their job.

Now, I understand this sentiment. I’m not a heartless monster. I don’t like to see people lose jobs, either – unless they deserve it.

But I also don’t believe that I should continue paying high taxes just to keep people employed. That’s not my responsibility. The only people I’m responsible to support live in my house. Everyone else is on their own.

Government should always strive to save money wherever and however it can.

It should constantly hunt for new ways to do more with less, making efficiency its goal and waste its foe.

If that means cutting employees, so be it.

Nothing in life is permanent. Nothing is guaranteed.

That includes jobs. That’s not harsh, that’s reality.

If it’s no longer cost-effective to keep a government program, department or position, it should be eliminated.

If an outside entity, be it public or private, can deliver the same level of service, or a higher one, for less money, it should be hired to do so without hesitation.

A government that does not do these things, be it due to incompetence or stubbornness, is a failure.

Government exists to serve the people.

The people don’t exist to serve government.

What I earn is mine. What you earn is yours.

We consent through our votes and our elected representatives to sacrifice a portion of what we earn in exchange for certain services, but this does not mean government has an unlimited claim on our money.

We are under no moral obligation to support whatever officials desire. We are not required to keep those who work for government employed.

A job is a job, whether it’s in the public or private sector. Working in the public sector does not make a job special nor does it make the person doing it special.

How the public’s money is spent should always be guided by rational arguments and common sense, not warm fuzzies and blind support for that which is unsustainable.

It’s not enough for officials to simply talk about making “tough decisions” and wring their hands for the cameras. They need to be willing to drop the ax when necessity and circumstances demand it.

Elected officials who are not willing to do this need to lose their jobs.