Didn't Build That

There has been a lot said about the President not giving the business owners credit for creating their business from nothing.  Unfortunately that is not really what he said.  What he was talking about is how having a stable society with services provided (police, fire,...), public infrastructure, and an educated work force allow people to create businesses.  There have been a lot of letters into the Wisconsin State Journal that have disputed this idea.  For proof that they didn't build it all you have to do is drive on highways 151 and 94.  There are 2 locations where a big corporation bought a bunch of land, probably relatively cheaply and built huge warehouse distribution facilities.  The only problem and probably a reason for low land prices is that there were not interchanges in those locations.  The state knowing that the $10 per hour jobs were important built interchanges at a cost of around $10 million dollars each.  The company didn't build it the taxpayers did.  The gas revenue from the trucks using these facilities will take a long time to pay for them (sorry it is a myth that the gas tax pays for the roads, we don't collect enough money).  There is another example from the same company where they wanted to build a store.  What they did was get the City of Monona to build the building in a wetland and then lease it to them.  They also had the roads in the area upgraded to handle the increased traffic.  So, the next time a company wants millions to stay in the state, highways built so that they can expand, public financing to expand,... remind the owners how exactly they are building their business themselves.