A different letter
After wading through what seemed like several weeks of the daily flow of well-organized supporters pouring forth the virtues of Elisabeth Motsinger, it was delightfully refreshing to read the thankful (dare I say, heart-warming) letter “Heart-warming story?” (Oct. 30) discussing the Journal’s Oct. 14 article “Saying goodbye to the old digs,” about the Christensens selling their stately 14,000-squarefoot Georgian residence.
The letter was a much-needed antidote for what ails us. Good to see that the Journal appreciates the folks out there who “get it.”
PETER W. MINGES
Clemmons
Payers and takers
Who pays and who takes in America? The taker states, those that take far more from the federal government than they pay, are New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, Virginia and Kentucky — all safely Republican for president except New Mexico and the toss-up Virginia.
The payer states, those that pay far more to the federal government than they get, are New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Illinois, Delaware, California and New York — all Democratic, except for a toss-up in New Hampshire.
Among states, the biggest pigs at the federal trough are Republican red! The blue states are those that are already paying more than their fair share.
If we want to balance the federal budget, let’s cut welfare. Let’s incentivize welfare queens like Alaska and Alabama. You red states: get a job!
STEVE SCROGGIN
Winston-Salem
Democracy or wealth
Edward Achorn’s Oct. 24 column, “Why we need flatter taxes,” perpetuates the misperception that tax cuts spur the economy, what one former Reagan budget wonk, David Stockman, called “Milton Friedman’s $8 trillion error.”
For one thing, the Darwinian supply-side politics of the last 30 years has helped to erode common-sense limitations on large corporations and their practices. While masquerading as proponents of free enterprise, these giants fiercely oppose it; they and their supporters work our legislative process like puppet-masters to concentrate more and more wealth in the hands of a relative few. One result? A yawning gap between the wealthiest and the rest of the country: between 1979 and 2005, income for the top 1 percent doubled while income of the bottom 80 percent fell , in contrast to 1940-1970, when all income levels rose. Inequality renders our economy unstable, making recovery more difficult.
Economic inequality should concern all Americans, as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned: “We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.”
The Founding Fathers feared that a concentration of wealth would reinstate the very tyranny our forefathers sought to escape — and warned about it in letters and laws. Their fears have been realized on our watch.
C.J. MUNSON
Winston-Salem
Thanks, voters
Even though the Journal printed what seemed like five letters to the editor a day for the last two weeks praising Elisabeth Motsinger, the voters of the 5 th District had sense enough not to elect her. Thank you, voters.
JAMES MOTSINGER
Rural Hall
Welcome John.
ReplyDeleteDitto
DeleteAnd many happy returns.
DeletePayers and takers. No "compassion" in this LTE. After the "Great Hormonal Outpouring" of Nov 6, this writer is not clued in. The reason the payer states do the paying is because they can. The taker states do the taking because they can. Comes down to people. Those states that pay are just brimming with voters who firmly believe in doing so. Likewise, the taker states are brimming with people who will let them. Instead of "ending welfare" which will make nearly everyone feel bad, just remove the right number of people below the average in each taker state and transfer them to the payer state of their choice.
ReplyDeleteDo we did this through a lottery, something like the Hunger Games or do the payer states get to choose their takers?
DeleteSince NC is a taker, I would prefer that we get to choose who we send to the nearest payer state.
DeleteI've already got a few people in mind.
;))
DeleteDemocracy or wealth. David Stockman was once again useful several months ago in a series of interviews with The NY Times, PBS and other outlets as the "useful" Republican du jour. He has problems with just about everyone and everything economic. What was left out of these interviews was the rest of what he said about our current fiscal problem. From the text of a long taped interview several months ago: " Here's what didn't come across in Stockman's media blitz: Since writing The Triumph of Politics he says he has "completed his homework" by reading libertarian economists such as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard. He thinks TARP was a big-government boondoggle and the bailouts of GM and Chrysler unconscionable. Stimulus spending is a hoax. He sees the abandonment of the gold standard in favor of floating exchange rates as the root cause of both the country's fiscal problems and the 2008 financial crisis. He says that Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is the only politician today "who gets it" and he's hopeful that Paul's growing power may begin to shed light on "the scholastic arrogance" of the Federal Reserve. He's still against the welfare-warfare state and he thinks government should be cut down to size."
ReplyDeleteThere is more and I tend to agree with him overall. We are playing political small ball with tax rates but the danger is well removed from a few silly percentages. His new reading of those economists is more to my liking.
darn, did should be do.
ReplyDeleteWordly, I know what you mean. Since the payer states get to front the bill, they should be able to match up-payers choice- with avaiable takers a much as possible. Any hardcore left overs should draw straws maybe.
DeleteWordly, blame Apple and Autocorrect.
DeleteWordPerfect was the first to try spell checking on the fly, but Apple "perfected" it early on. With the advent of OSX, it became universal in all Mac apps.
Now it's on Google and even hiding in the cloud. Usually it merely makes us look dumb, but sometimes it has greater consequences.
Earlier this year, the police locked down the West Hall School, in Hall County, GA because someone there got a text message that said "Gunman be at west hall today". The texter had typed "gunna", but Autocorrect had a better idea.
Blame Lincoln. He should have let the Confederacy go.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the MAP of payer/taker states, you can see that among net payer states, only Texas, Nebraska, Arkansas and Georgia voted for Romney. All the rest are net takers.
The only net taker states that voted for Obama were Oregon, Iowa, Florida, Virginia, Maryland and Vermont. All the rest (17) were net payers.
If you want to really get into it, take a look at which states have the highest and lowest percentage of people who pay no federal income tax.
10 with highest percentage of non-payers:
1. MS
2. GA
3. AR
4. NM
5. AL
6. SC
7. LA
8. TX
9. FL
10. ID
Only Florida and New Mexico went for Obama.
10 with lowest percentage of non-payers:
1. AK
2. MA
3. CT
4. NH
5. WY
6. ND
7. MD
8. WA
9. MN
10. VA
Only Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming went for Romney.
Is general election theory in the United States totally bassackwards?
You're welcome Mr. Motsinger. You know how these liberals are. They think if they say the same stupid stuff over and over, people will believe them.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, I've had read a ton of that nonsense in this forum, particularly coming from one such individual. They're like annoying weeds, they seem to be growing everywhere. And they're not much smarter.
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ReplyDeleteThe other day we mentioned the shameful treatment of our military veterans. In my dealings with my fellow Viet Nam vets, I have encountered suicidal individuals, but statistics show that Viet Nam vets have not had an elevated occurrence of suicide.
ReplyDeleteThat is no longer true today. The suicide rate for Iraq and Afghanistan vets has gone viral. At some point in those two wars, the number of suicides began to outpace the battlefield death toll. This year so far the ratio of suicides to combat deaths is 25-1.
One reason cited is the continuous multiple deployments. In Viet Nam, everybody began a "short timer" chart in their last 30-60 days, marking them off one day at a time, because we knew that once we left, we wouldn't be going back. Neither George Washington nor I liked the idea of a professional army.
The other most cited reason is the shift from small arms to IEDs as the principal weapon of our "enemies". A frequent result is concussion, which, although invisible, can have far more gruesome results than any bleeding wound.
I saw the other day where some fool NBA coach was bitching about the "concussion rule" which benched one of his stars for a few days. Maybe he should read up on Army Major Ben Richards.
Major Richards used to have an IQ of around 148. A West Point graduate and instructor, he received glowing evaluations in every job he held. He spoke fluent Chinese, one of the most difficult languages in the world. As a captain in Iraq, he was assigned to the city of Baquba and was greeted on his first day by an intense 12 hour firefight.
After studying the situation for a few weeks, Richards came up with a brilliant idea…make an ally of the local Sunni militias, who up until then had been attacking Americans. Everybody made fun of him and said that his idea wouldn't work. But it did and it played a major role in allowing us to stand down from Iraq sooner rather than later.
Richards was immediately promoted to major and marked by the Pentagon as a future general. Then his Stryker was destroyed by a car bomb. He was nauseated and dazed for a week, but received no mandatory medical care, because the military does not have a "concussion rule". The macho ethos of the military says that unless you are bleeding profusely, you are not injured. Same thing happened to my Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant friend in Beirut and elsewhere.* I guess they got that from the great war hero John Wayne.
Three weeks later, Richards was knocked out again by an IED. Still no mandatory medical checkup. But his mind and his life began unraveling. After several distressing years, and a lack of concern on the part of the Army and the VA, thanks mostly to his wife, Farrah, the Army finally determined that he was suffering from TBI and PTSD.
He is no longer able to use his 148 IQ. He is no longer on the list of future generals. In fact, he will never be able to hold even a menial job. He retired recently from the Army as a disability case.
The only list that he is on today is the one headed "potential suicide".
Read this New York Times story about him and weep.
* Note to Wordly…Autocorrect just tried to change Beirut to beret, but I outsmarted it.