Editor, Times-Union: Aaron, your numbers are a bit off, but I’m more interested in sharing another perspective than refuting your numbers.
Why do you think that taking money from billionaires and millionaires to give it to others is OK? If I walked up to a billionaire and demanded money from them so I could give it away, I’d go to jail for robbing them.
Why should our government be able to do it legally? You write in to demonize investors, entrepreneurs and others like them who have accumulated large sums of money.
A vast majority of those billionaires and millionaires worked hard for that money and nobody has a right to tell them what they can and cannot do with it, nor do they have the right to take it away. Did you know that many of those billionaires have pledged to give away at least half of their wealth?
Google the phrase “The Giving Pledge” and have a look for yourself. The same people you demonize give massive sums of money to charity and other causes, whether it’s publicized or done quietly behind closed doors.
You talk about our government “taxing the poor and giving to the rich,” yet when my wife and I tried to find an apartment in Warsaw several years ago when we first moved here, we had a hard time finding an apartment because a majority of the complexes in town are government subsidized and we didn’t qualify.
I got a flyer in the mail saying that if I met income requirements my cell phone bill could be subsidized. I saw an ad online where Comcast is offering subsidized internet access for low-income families. The Recovery Act subsidized new furnaces and water heaters for low-income families.
The list of subsidies goes on and on. So, who pays for these subsidies? The “rich” people you speak so highly of. I’d say the “rich” people you’re angry with are a lot more generous than you are giving them credit for.
