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July 27, 2016 02:00 AM

The next president of the United States?

Bill Bregar
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    Mooney

    I hereby nominate Peter Mooney for the President of the United States America, for the Common Sense Party.

    Move over Hillary. Trump, stand down!

    Mr. Mooney, sir, will you serve?

    Peter Mooney has done plastics market research for more than 30 years. A frequent speaker, he is known throughout the industry for economic reports on plastic processing by his firm, Plastics Custom Research Services in Advance, N.C.

    I've heard Peter speak countless times, and always, my favorite part is the end when he sounds off on U.S. economic policy, the importance of manufacturing jobs, debt, and other subjects that — while not specifically about “plastics” — are critically important to our nation's future.

    Peter makes more sense than most politicians — certainly the two running for president in November.

    Did you hear Donald Trump's acceptance speech July 21 at the Republican National Convention? It's all about Trump, he's a billionaire, he's a smart guy, he will solve all our problems. I didn't hear too many details, except “Build the Wall” and “Lock Her Up.”

    The Democrats are up this week. I heard Hillary Clinton outline her economic strategy a few months ago: it sounded like something on a sixth-grade level. Business needs to hire people, and pay them well. Then we'll be OK.

    Right.

    And so, as a public service, Heavy Metal presents a transcript of the final part of Peter Mooney's keynote address during the Society of Plastics Engineers Rotational Molding Conference, held in June in Cleveland.

    As background, Mooney often points to two key challenges for the U.S. economy: anemic growth in the U.S. labor force and productivity growth that has been declining steadily, especially after the Great Recession.

    A Wall is not going to solve that. Neither is pandering.

    Here is what Mooney said in Cleveland:

    “Economists disagree on a lot of things, but we all agree that economic growth is critical. It's in our DNA. The dominant ideology recently has been progressivism. And that's fair enough. But to an economist, you can't have progressivism without prosperity. Without prosperity, you can't reduce income inequality. Without prosperity you can't afford the quality of education to make children as productive as their parents. Without prosperity you don't have the money to accomplish the laudable goals of social justice.

    “Prosperity won't be achieved through slogans. Prosperity can only be achieved through real work and real productive assets, producing the real goods and services that people need.

    “We don't need, as some have proposed, ‘helicopter money;' we have more than enough money already. The problem is unproductive debt, much of it incentivized by government.

    “The problem is also burdensome regulations and paperwork, imposing costs and taking away resources better put to use raising productivity and output.

    “The solution must come from whatever government we have going forward trusting individuals and trusting companies—providing them the maximum freedom within our laws to let individuals grow their wealth and to let companies grow their businesses. If we have that sort of political economy to operate in, the rotomolders in this region will continue to prosper.”

    Prosperity for Rotomolders. Prosperity for all. Cue the balloon drop. All together now: Mooney, Mooney, Mooney, Mooney ...

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