To the Editor:
I remember President Reagan pushing several political agendas where basically, 1. the government is our main problem and we must deregulate, and 2. cut taxes to the rich, and the “trickle-down effect” will float all of our boats. Certainly Bush-Cheney pushed these mantras, and now all of the Republican presidential hopefuls are saying more of the same.
As an independent voter and a small business owner for 45 years, I ask, “Where’s the beef?”, because I see lots of evidence that these agendas have, in large part, actually caused the serious problems we now face.
Deregulation has led directly to many very costly scandals from Enron, to BP, to Wall Street. The new joke should be, “I’m from the ‘too big to fail’ corporations, and I’m here to help you!” And while the big boys complain about government, many of them were in line for government handouts. Meanwhile, the “too little to matter” folks on Main Street, USA are adrift with rapidly shrinking social safety nets.
How come for the past three years unemployment is stuck at 9 percent, and probably another 10 percent are underemployed, and yet the Bush tax cuts to the rich continue? The wealthy continue to buy $120,000 bottles of wine and Marilyn Monroe dresses for $4.6 million. Big corporation CEOs now earn over 400 times the income of average workers. “Trickle-down” is a scam!
While many business people are basically honest, hard-working folks who try to balance the profit motive with social responsibilities, there is a dark side to human nature. Greed, self-righteousness, stupidity, and dishonesty are unfortunately part of life. So there is a need for rules and regulations that help level the playing field of life. Imagine what chaos and danger would exist if society eliminated motor vehicle laws and enforcement?
The cover of the August 15, 2011, New Yorker magazine summarizes my points. The rich “robber baron-type” businessmen are in the life boat as everyone else is going down on the Titanic.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment