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Summit Daily letters: The realities of laissez faire and luck

The reality of laissez faire

Re: Morgan Liddick’s Aug. 23 column, “The natural laws of politics”

Aren’t you lucky, Mister Liddick, not to have been born black, or, I assume, not to have a mother who is a drug addict or a father in jail or have been terrified to walk to school and are fortunate enough to have obtained a superior education.



Not everyone is so fortunate. Republicans joyously approve trillions of dollars for what I believe are two useless wars but reject any discussion to spend $80 billion for college tuition in order to assist deserving students who cannot afford college. I was fortunate enough to have helped a young black former gang member in obtaining a college education. Today he is a fully-function member of our society. It’s a natural law: Education equals a better citizen. We need to help like this on a national basis.

You say “if left alone,” societies will produce the greatest “prosperous human condition.” However, “left alone,” the United States, as ranked against other nations, is 35th in meeting basic human needs, 39th in basic education, has the highest first-day infant mortality rate and the highest child poverty rate (21 percent) among industrialized nations. “Left alone,” two thirds of the 500 U.S. largest corporations pay no taxes, and billionaires like Donald Trump pay a lower percentage than the middle class, or no taxes at all. “Left alone,” the average CEO pay went from earning 70 times the average worker’s wage to earning between 250 and 500 times the average worker. “Left alone,” Citizens United lets corporations sway political influence, where only wealthy donors affect political policy. “Left alone,” our voting for the House of Representatives means nothing because our vote is diluted by the gerrymandering of districts, to insure that that same person will hold their office — no matter how badly they act. “Left alone,” without the Glass-Steagall Act that protected the public against the greed of Wall Street, the big banks (too big to fail and too big to jail) may once again bring the entire world economic system to its knees. “Left alone,” all the growth of income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent, and one family, the Walto’s, own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent. “Left alone,” 80 people in the world own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent. “Left alone,” the billionaires will become trillionaires. “Left alone,” they want it all, and this kind of greed will kill the goose that lays the golden egg (our middle class) and all boats will sink.



Think about that on Nov. 8!

Carl M. Birkelbach

Silverthorne

Why Trump resonates with voters

Re: Mike Littwin’s Aug. 22 column, “The Donald, he has his regrets”

How unusual! Another hit piece on Trump from leftist Littwin. You would think he was writing for The New York Times instead of the Summit Daily News.

Has Littwin ever mentioned the number of people at Trump events versus those at Hillary events? The reason Trump is filling stadiums and halls with tens of thousands, while Hillary is lucky to get a few hundred to attend her events, is because his message resonates with the masses. Perhaps Littwin considers them unwashed masses who do not know enough to run their own lives. After all, he is a proponent of cradle-to-grave government to save us all from ourselves, with the leftists-progressives-socialists-communists, call it what you will, in charge because the elitists know what’s best for you. Yeah, right.

Littwin should concentrate on substance rather than form, as in the substantive lies and corruption we have had to endure with Hillary as Secretary of State, sucking in millions of dollars in “donations” to her charity (A misnomer because the majority of funds wind up in Clinton and friends’ bank accounts) as well as “speaking fees” for the potential First Cuckold from unfavorable foreign governments. I use the quotes instead of the more harsh “bribes” since reality would seem so insensitive to the leftist whiners.

But with Hillary as president, that corruption would continue. The citizenry is tired of that, as well as the untamed and growing bureaucracy in D.C. And that is why Trump is resonating with the working stiffs. Perhaps with him as president with a Republican administration, the press will get back to their roots as the government’s “fourth branch” and actually return to reporting facts on what the administrators are actually doing, rather than printing stupid Littwin diatribes.

Terry W. Donze

Wildernest

Calling a spade assisted suicide

Kudos to 9NEWS, KUSA, for calling a euphemism what it is: an advertising scheme to call something objectionable by a less offensive term.

Channel 9 has refused to call the Initiative 145 something other than “Physician Assisted SUICIDE.” But, in plain English, ending anyone’s life, even if requested, is still suicide or even murder. Merriam-Webster defines suicide as: “The act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind.”

The term assisted suicide is accurate and descriptive – which is precisely why euthanasia advocates want it never to be used.

Larry Beardsley

Breckenridge


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