SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Ingenuity, support can create jobs

EDITORIAL:

The results of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections will undoubtedly make an impact on the lives of local residents, especially when it comes to creating or losing jobs.
   Republicans, such as presidential candidate Mitt Romney, believe that those with the highest incomes pay enough in taxes as is, and that paying more would destroy jobs rather than create them.
   Democrats, on the other hand, believe that rich people should pay higher taxes and that this money would assist in creating jobs by financing federal projects such as updating the nation’s infrastructure.
   While Republicans think that the pathway to new business and jobs is paved by hard working, dedicated entrepreneurs who strive to make their mark on their own, Democrats have a much different view.
   In the eyes of Democrats, such as President Barack Obama, new businesses are not only created by one determined person with a vision, but with the aid of the government through grant programs, federally sponsored experts, and other public and private resources in order to succeed.
   During a recent stop at a South Brunswick biosciences firm, U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-12, said he believes that small businesses are the root of new job platforms and that the government does have a role in financing the research and development of new technologies to power those small enterprises.
   GOP congressional candidate and South Brunswick businessman Eric Beck, the challenger to Mr. Holt, is the owner of a small business and sides with the Republican point of view. He also does not think tax increases on wealthier Americans will lead to creating more jobs.
   The answer to the struggling economy, however, may lie in the middle.
   Mr. Holt is correct that the federal government does have a role in funding scientific research to develop new technologies that will serve as the springboard for jobs in the future.
   Likewise, Mr. Beck is correct that innovators fire the entrepreneurial engine that makes the economy steam forward, creating jobs along the way.
   We can all agree that there are things our government can do, especially in the research area, that are too expensive for most private enterprises to take on themselves.
   Those discoveries, however, can lead private industry to new heights and create millions of new jobs and occupations.
   On the other hand, if we tax those who would develop those new industries too much, taking away the incentive to realize the potential of those discoveries, we prevent the free market system from working correctly.
   We are all in this together and the road to job creation needs to be a journey where we share the common goal of bettering society and our own economic interests at the same time.
   It is how we put a man on the moon in less than a decade and how we used those advances to create a myriad of products to better ourselves.
   It is the American way.