Dear Editor:
Obama continues droning on about fairness; what is fair? In 2010 the top 1percent of earners made 18.9 percent of total AGI and paid 37.4 percent of all income taxes. They paid an average of nearly $263,000 per return. Those in the bottom 50 percent of income made 11.7 percent of AGI and paid 2.4 percent of all income tax, an average of less than $14,000 per return. Why is that fair? (If you want to move up in the income hierarchy get more education that has value in the market, learn more skills, work more hours, make yourself more valuable.)
No one is handing the top one percent anything. In general, their income is high because someone values the services that they can provide, and is willing to pay for them. (Our president may be an exception. I don't think he has ever had a real job in his entire life and yet he went to the best schools and is a millionaire.)
Webster defines fairness as, "lack of favoritism toward one side or another." What is fair about one group of people paying $263,000 for the same services that another group gets for $14,000.
There are those who through no fault of their own, need to be provided for by others. Once, many years ago, when we were still a Christian nation, we did so with minimal government intrusion. Although, back then very few seemed to expect that it was the duty of others to support them. Unfortunately we have evolved into a nation where to many believe they have a right to be supported by others.
Rather than an ever-increasing focus on income redistribution, government should focus on making sure that all have an equal access to a free high school education, equal access to a higher education, equal access to trade schools and equal access to the job market.
No one can have any true sense of self-esteem if they believe that they have no worth, that they are incapable of providing at least some level of self-support. The worst thing the white man did to the Indians was to put them on reservations and pay them just enough welfare to keep them there. The result was that we managed to effectively destroy many of them. Can we learn nothing from history?