Elections must be getting close again. I see ads on TV promising smaller government, control of run away spending, cutting taxes, all of which means fewer government services. All of which will have a disproportionate impact on the poor. All in the name of promoting business growth.

I started to wonder, what do the poor contribute to our economy? When you reach for that "everyday, low, low price item," did you ever think about how it got that "low, low, price?" Here in Georgia and in other places, including foreign countries, some poor person produced it, packaged and shipped it and then put it on the shelf for you to buy.

Did you ever stop to think about how vegetables that show up in our food chain have bacteria on them? It isn’t like bacteria is added as part of the processing. Being a family newspaper, let’s say that the workers picking those vegetables don’t have proper facilities and let it go at that. It does results in cheap vegetables and a few deaths each year.

The poor are the majority of victims of crimes as well as the people committing them. That keeps the police, courts and prisons one of the few growth industries in the country, humming.

Educational funding cuts due to tax reductions help fuel the prison system as well. Lack of education cuts across all other categories, race, ethnicity, gender, in terms of the prison population. It is a tax reduction benefit that just keeps on giving.

A vote to keep others in poverty is a vote for one kind of economy. Depends on what sort of economy you want.