I agree with Tyler Cassell regarding Ed Konecnik. It has been said that we pay taxes to buy civilization. Along with making money, there should also be social responsibility.
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said “we can have democracy or the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both.”
To have a decent, just society, there has to be a sense of proportionality — i.e., there has to be a limit on wealth. The nation’s resources belong to all the people, and while those who contribute more should be better compensated, it cannot be allowed to the extent which forces people to live in poverty.
There is plenty of excess for those more entrepreneurial to keep, and I doubt most would object to it. This country is blessed with more than adequate resources so everyone can obtain the wherewithal to be provided enough for a decent livelihood.
That conditions of impoverishment — recession or depression — occur, not for lack of resources but when there is an oversupply, defies logic and is crazy. Thus, an argument can be made that capitalism as it exists is a failed system not for the haves but a large percentage of the population.
As for the U.S. Constitution, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and a few others proposed that we have a convention every 20 years or so so each generation may make changes if and when they may be needed.
Joe Brooks
Whitestone
