One of my clients is an excavation contractor. He told me a couple of years ago his business was robust because of a steady supply of what he characterized as “boulders, rocks and pebbles.”
When I smiled, he explained how the big, complex, well-paying jobs were the boulders. They made up the baseline of the business, and by doing them, he was able to pay employees, provide their healthcare benefits and take on other projects while investing in better equipment and more supplies. Then, he explained the rocks: the somewhat smaller, but still very important, jobs that consistently produced a reliable profit. Finally, he explained how the pebbles were the other projects his company did solely because they were important – not necessarily to the bottom line, but maybe impactful to the community, or meaningful for the owner and still critical to the world. He explained how all the work his company did was important in some way, but none of it was possible without the boulders anchoring it.
In a few days, the West Virginia Legislature will convene for the 60-day regular session, and it will be crucial to focus first on the boulders, because the boulders allow us to do everything else. Where the Legislature is concerned, those boulders are the economy. Creating a vibrant and thriving economy also is the first step necessary for conservatives committed to advancing a conservative agenda and furthering conservative principles. The conservative platform is clear and has been for decades: policies promoting lower taxes, higher educational attainment, less need for social welfare programs, decreased demand for abortion, lower rates of substance abuse and reduced crime. The research has been done, and the data are clear: Every conservative policy goal is easier to achieve when men and women are financially secure and capable of making their own choices about what is best for themselves and their families.
By standing together with the state economy as our boulder, we can more easily build with every rock conservatives want to add. A thriving economy that provides full employment is the largest boulder of them all. Every single conservative goal is more easily achievable in an environment where West Virginians have the economic security to make the decisions best for themselves and their families. The correlations between unemployment and rates of abortion, prevalence of substance abuse, educational attainment and even domestic violence all are strong; as employment increases, each of these circumstances improves. By focusing first on creating a thriving economy in West Virginia, we can improve in every social metric by which we hope to measure progress.
However, if we focus only on the rocks, we leave no room for the boulders, and that is a mistake we must not make. It is critical we prioritize the things that will grow West Virginia’s economy to provide suitable and lasting employment opportunities for our people. Putting West Virginians to work in well-paying jobs will enable us to tackle a host of other societal challenges, as long as we first stand on the boulder.
“House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, has served in the West Virginia House of Delegates since 2014. He is a practicing attorney with a Ph. D. in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame, a certified professional parliamentarian and a certified magistrate court mediator. He also serves on the West Virginia Farm Bureau Board of Directors.”
