Our readers write

Churches can’t take care of all

To the Editor:
I agree with Pam Murphy in her recent letter to the editor that taking care of children and the disabled should be the work of churches and charities.
Unfortunately, though, never in the history of the world have churches and charities been able to accomplish this miracle. And I see no reason to assume that they would be able to do so now.
So while it is comfortable to live in the world of what should be, the poor, the disabled, and the elderly have to live in the world of what actually is. That is why we have food stamps, unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
I don’t want a child to go hungry, a family to be homeless or an elderly person to die from lack of medical care because a church or charitable organization didn’t have the money to help. In the richest country in the world, that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
Lynda Hamblen
Union City
Economy needs
other solutions
To the Editor:
I have been reading The Messenger while staying with relatives here in Union City. I am left wondering why you only choose editorial writers who suggest the same solutions to our economic problems: slashing taxes (especially on the wealthy) and eliminating government regulations.
Right now the top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent of Americans; and the top 1 percent are taking in more of the nation’s income than at any other time since the 1920s. According to the C.I.A.’s own ranking of countries by income inequality, the United States is more unequal a society than either Tunisia or Egypt.
Indeed, a report by the Economic Policy Institute notes that the current tax rate for super millionaires (with an average annual income of nearly $350 million) is now less than the tax rate for average Americans.
Even millionaires appear to want change. A recent survey reported in The Wall Street Journal showed 68 percent of millionaires supporting higher taxes for people who earn $1 million or more in income.
With the Bush tax cuts the rich got richer. Without regulations the big banks on Wall Street took down the global economy. Maybe we need other solutions to our economic woes than more tax cuts and fewer regulations.
Maybe The Messenger’s readers would benefit from a broader editorial viewpoint.
Ira Shorr
Union City

Published in The Messenger 11.2.11

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