Concerning the Oct. 9 letter, “Some work must accompany help“:
Nice sound bite, right out of Rush Limbaugh’s playbook. The writer oversimplifies, suggesting there are two
choices: welfare or capitalism. I will suggest that her form of capitalism is one of the reasons our welfare rolls are overflowing.
Consider that the CEOs of companies that destroyed the housing market in the last few years are still making millions, and in fact receiving bonuses. Consider that some of the largest and most profitable companies in this country are outsourcing. Why? Because their shareholders (capitalists) demand higher profits. How do you increase your profits? You move overseas where labor is a fraction of what it is here. Oh, and then they also avoid paying taxes on their overseas profits.
What happens when you outsource hundreds of thousands of jobs? Government assistance is what happens. Unemployment and food stamps are the last resort for people who devoted sometimes decades to a job they thought they would retire from. College students who lived that part of the American Dream (after home ownership) believing that a college education would automatically mean a job and the ability to support oneself are facing a job market that is nonexistent. And to suggest that walking up to someone’s front door and suggesting you can do home/property maintenance for them is something out of the 1950s. This is not “Leave It to Beaver.” This is 2011. Homes in foreclosure, businesses in bankruptcy, and people unable to make it.
If I were the letter writer, I would be less concerned about that darned “S” word (socialism) and a little more concerned about another “S” word — survival. Capitalism has its place, but not at the level where it continues to suck the country dry and create an even larger gap between the haves and the have-nots. I am not suggesting “class warfare” — I am saying those of us who work harder than ever, do more work for less money, and run out of money before the next paycheck because survival costs so much more these days, aren’t doing anything wrong. We’re just in the wrong tax bracket.
Karen Knapp
Snohomish
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