Enough with the class envy. Recent letters to The Columbian blame the “rich” or their businesses for destroying the economy, for shipping jobs overseas, or for not paying their “fair share” of taxes. Such simplistic notions divide us at a time when we need to pull together as a nation.
Business cycles happen, and there is little any business owner can do about them. Like it or not, we now live in a world economy, and if an American company isn’t competitive globally, it will go out of business. Because of high taxes, rising labor costs, or onerous regulations, some companies have had no choice but to move manufacturing offshore. So, if you can’t find a job, blame greedy unions or overreaching government, or blame yourself every time you buy a product that is made overseas.
As for taxes, the rich already pay a disproportionate share of all federal and state taxes. The solution, as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said recently, is not more taxes, but more taxpayers. To do that, we need the rich to keep investing in job-creating enterprises. Raising their taxes or slamming them in the newspaper is not going to help.
John Bala
Vancouver
