Dear Editor,
Listening to the banter at the coffee shop and reading “Letters to the Editor” in a “Deep Red State” is enough to make one wonder why and who is propagating such obvious and egregious misinformation.
Big tax cuts have never, ever reached the working class.
However, benefits to the ultra rich are great and two-fold. First, the reduced ‘rate’ is obvious. Second, reducing the income of various social programs may hasten the end thereof, a goal often promoted by the ultra rich.
A few who have reached the upper tier of our economy sometimes brag: “I did it by myself with no help from the government! All you wannabe’s should do the same.” Either they are grossly mistaken or prevaricating.
Everybody takes some advantage of our infrastructure, and the opportunities that we as a people have worked for and provided. We the people have been most generous but that trait apparently has not been passed down, much less recognized by those who “have it made.”
We must not confuse economic systems with civil, political systems. Capitalism is an economic system originally designed to facilitate the movement of capital from where it is generated to a collection place where it could accumulate into a large useful amount.
The purpose of which is to get enough money (capital) into one pot from which large public projects such as building sanitary water and sewer systems could be funded. Large privately owned projects could avail themselves of the same system to build new factories, new communication and transportation systems. All of these projects need capital to get off the drawing board and onto the ground.
On the other hand, political systems have the structure and responsibility of maintaining peace, law and order. Among the various political systems are democracy, aristocracy, plutocracy, fascism and many others.
Unfortunately, “The Golden Rule” is more often the predominate governing system — “He who has the gold makes the rules!”
That is where our troubles begin. Ever on the lookout for a chance to get ahead of the crowd, an individual politician or a pack of them (political party) will seek out a flaw in the economic system and exploit it for munificent personal gain.
Perhaps we can explore some alternate systems next week.
—Jerry Baird