Capital, Labor Need Each Other

To The Editor:
The latest IRS tax amnesty program wrapped up last week and since it began in February, more than 12,000 tax cheats came forward to declare their secret overseas bank accounts in more than 140 countries. Since 2009 over 30,000 people have come clean and paid $2.7 billion in back taxes. Un-fortunately, these 30,000 tax evaders represent but a small fraction of those with unreported income and assets. I have believed, contrary to Sarah Palin and other economic libertarian’s assertions to the con-trary, that it is every American’s patriotic duty to pay their fair share of taxes and not one penny more. Nobody likes to pay taxes, that’s why it is called a duty and not a pleasure. Congress’s job is determin-ing just what a fair share is. Our job as citizens is to obey the law, not flout the law and, in essence, steal from the rest of us.
Even though taxes have been repeatedly cut over the last decade, the burden is still too heavy for our poor little rich folks to bear so they decided to create jobs in the overseas banking sector, rather than at home. Even when they feel disposed to appear to create jobs at home, they tend to buy stock in exist-ing companies, which only creates jobs for stockbro-kers, rather than starting new companies with new jobs. As our rich have gotten richer, some learned that it is easier to make money by taking profitable corporations apart; that’s why they are called corpo-rate raiders. They create wealth for themselves at the expense of society and destroy jobs, not create them.
My definition of a deserving person is someone who works hard, plays by the rules and just wants to have a decent life. It does not include people like the character Gordon Gecko in Oliver Stone’s film “Wall Street,” who held that “greed is good” to justify his own self serving lust for “more” not better. If Amer-ica is the great country that I believe it is, one should be proud to pay their fair share of taxes. If you be-lieve that America is not worth paying for, perhaps you should renounce your citizenship and move to one of those tax havens were you send your money. Labor and capital need each other to build better, longer, healthier lives for all. Capital, without labor, can do nothing but sit in the corner and sparkle. Labor, without capital, can only provide a subsis-tence existence.
BOB POST
Villas