Your Opinion: Questions for Smith on economic issues

Dear Editor:

A few questions for Tony Smith after his latest ridiculous letter.

• If you feel the debt crisis is fake, do you believe we can keep adding to it so long as we keep raising taxes? Don't you realize that at the rate we are spending, even a 100 percent tax on everyone won't be enough to keep up? Neither higher tax rates nor higher tax revenues can be the solution if even the maximum of either one isn't enough to keep up with spending.

• Why do you assume teachers, policemen, and grandmas will be the "initial victims" if federal spending is cut? Is it because you're just listening to President Obama's speeches instead of reading the actual bill the House passed? The recent "Cut, Cap, and Balance" legislation specifically exempts cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and veterans benefits. It is the president, not conservatives, saying these people will be the first to suffer. (By the way, did you know that all Senate Democrats, including Claire McCaskill, voted to block even allowing a debate of this bill?)

• What is your specific solution to the extreme concentration of wealth in this country? Do you expect all of us to someday have exactly equal wealth? If so, what happens once we're all equally wealthy, and then you happen to find a $10 on the ground and pick it up? Now suddenly you become the richest person in America. Should you suddenly be taxed at a higher rate because you have more than everyone else? Or will you divide that $10 by 300 million and give everyone else their "fair share" of it? (I know this scenario is an extreme exaggeration; I'm just using it to make a point and lead into the next question.)

• If you don't expect everyone to have 100 percent equal wealth, just "more fairness" than we have now, then exactly what amount of "unfairness" are you willing to live with? And what gives you, or anyone else, the right to set that amount? Be careful how you answer that one, because one day you may find that someone who has less wealth than you feels it's okay to take part of what you have earned, and they'll start writing letters to the paper calling you a rich, uncaring tyrant!

We will never eliminate either greed or jealousy through legislation. It's time we all stop trying that and start working on real solutions to our problems.

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