Column leaves out libertarian fallacy
What Cecil Bohanon leaves out in his (column) published in The News-Sentinel is that the libertarian fallacy and the policies that follow are immensely lucrative to society's most powerful “1 percent,” and that's bad for the economy (Joseph Stiglitz).
Bohanon has been sticking Charles Murray's elegiac book, which falsely claims that the greatest source of inequality in America is cultural (not economic), in our own faces with a frequency that is nettling at the least.
Of course, the nation of a free market is a myth. All markets are shaped by laws and regulations, and unfortunately, our laws and regulations are shaped in order to create more inequality and less opportunity.
Bohanon is aware, of course, of this issue of a growing inequality and the way we responded to “the crisis” with the bottom going down and the top protected. This seemingly produced another “blame the poor” (whites only this time for Murray) book from the right.
Today, it is still possible for the “1 percent” to do within the law a lot of bad things that are clearly immoral. That is, the “1 percent” went beyond the point of decency, but they didn't go beyond what was legal. That's too bad.
Consequently, it's a basic question of the direction of our country. The choice is rather simple: Obama or Romney.
B.J. Paschal
Tax letter response
I found Kimberly Teague's letter to the editor very interesting. It was titled “Taxing What Hurts Us.” The national medical cost estimate of $190 billion for dealing with our obesity epidemic would seem to be a hard number to calculate. Sure, we can determine how much is spent on various diseases related to obesity. But suppose for a minute we cure obesity. How much would our medical costs drop? A key to the answer for that question is further down in her letter with the statement that death can be deferred by taxing products that make us sick. The key word is deferred. You see death still comes no matter how well we manage our health issues. Sometimes it is after a lengthy and expensive illness (even for those without obesity). If we could determine what the health costs would be for those we save from obesity related deaths, that number should be subtracted from the $190 billion.
As Kimberly closed with a quote from Benjamin Franklin, so I will close with a quote from one of Mr. Franklin's peers, Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
David Roehling
Harlan
Gas price deception
Just back from a trip to Michigan. Laughing a sick laugh as only diesel price increase in the entire Midwest is right here in Fort Wayne. Can't fool me now, though. Got all the prices on my smartphone on the way down and filled up in Auburn at 27 cents less per gallon than the cheapest in Fort Wayne. Game over, losers.
Lee McAllister
