The basic fear that drives nearly everything

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

Public Speaking is routinely cited as a basic fear that possesses nearly everyone. I’ll contend there is another bigger than this – sales. From my experience, nearly everyone is afraid of adopting the role of being a sales person. This manifests itself in several ways.

Looking for a job is a sales function – one must sell themselves. Most hate it, and most are bad at it because they do it so infrequently.  

In businesses, we always have the sales function. Products and services must be sold in order to stay in business.  

There is a way out of this, and this way has become more pervasive as time passes. The way out is mandates from the government – federal, state or local. Governments collect taxes, and governments buy products or services. With one exception, these become mandates that require no sales efforts.

That sole exception is local levies that appear on local ballots. These often take quite a bit of sales effort to be passed. And sometimes they fail.

Adults who land a government job usually expect it to be long-lasting. Governments do not have a reputation for eliminating jobs. Government employees can slip into a feeling of being comfortable in their job for they expect it to last.

As taxpayers, I think most of us want smaller governments followed by smaller tax bills. Hence, at least at the moment, President Trump’s DOGE initiative has many fans, those fans being taxpayers.

We saw this past week how difficult it will be to implement the DOGE initiative when Congress had a difficult time passing the Continuing Resolution.  

Limiting or even reducing government expenditures dig into the pockets of Congress members and their constituents. It may even involve eliminating jobs, throwing constituents out of work and into the dreaded mode of seeking a job (the sales function).

Expect a lot of pushbacks as DOGE comes into play. Expect a lot of turmoil. Services will need to be cut; jobs will need to be eliminated. There will be howls all around.

This writer believes this is necessary and good for the country. The government, especially the federal government, has gotten too big and has become the problem solver of first resort, not last resort, as it should be.

And a lot of people will need to embrace the sales function once again.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.