In his Aug. 25 letter, “Romney wrong about corporations,” Kevin J. McElrath says he doesn’t know who these human beings are that benefit from corporations, but the answer is in his letter with the 98 percent of the people who work for a living. Anyone who works in the private sector and receives a wage is getting his paycheck from corporations’ profits.
That money doesn’t come out of thin air. But wait, you say, we don’t all work in the private sector; some of us work in the public sector (policemen, firemen, teachers, government, etc.). All of these people have pension funds, and inside those pension funds are the stocks and bonds of corporations that receive income from the profits of those corporations.
Anyone who has an IRA or 401(k) owns stocks and bonds of corporations. Actually, when you think about it, the whole Social Security system is funded with money that comes out of corporate profits — half comes from the employees’ paycheck and the other half comes directly from the employer. It’s when corporations can’t make profits that businesses shut down, Social Security taxes go uncollected, income taxes fall, and workers lose jobs. Corporations are all of us.
We just don’t all benefit equally.
Carl D. Price
VANCOUVER
