THE RICH AND THE POOR

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I should like to take issue with you regarding your opposition to the proposed twenty-third amendment. The question before the people is not whether the rich shall be made poor, but whether or not the poor shall be made slaves. I shall enumerate several reasons why this amendment should be enacted. The gravest threat of the present exorbitant tax rate is presented to the lower-income, or wage-earning, groups. In less than two years the lowest tax rate in this nation has slithered upward to over twenty-two per cent. It will take only a short time before this trend results in a situation whereby all the gainfully employed people in the U.S. will be, to all intents and purposes, working one day in four for the federal government. The wage-earners constitute the group that suffers most from inflation and it will suffer much more from an increased tax burden.

Secondly, it is quite doubtful whether high tax rates on middle and higher income groups are really necessary. Senator George, an outstanding expert on taxation and federal expenditures, states that if all the taxable income over $8,000 were confiscated, the total netted would not run the government over twenty-two days. If the current trend of federal pecuniary bloodsucking is allowed to continue we shall witness the destruction of our middle-class and the advent of the greatest danger innate in democracy: the reduction to a deadening mediocrity of those with superior capabilities.

Finally, as a cure for inflation, reduction of corporate and personal income taxes would prove invaluable. Such action will release risk capital that can be invested so as to bring about greater production of scarce civilian goods and war material. This would end the price spiral on civilian commodities and greatly aid in cutting federal expenditures for war goods--the main reason for high government budgets--thus enabling the federal government to operate efficiently on its lower income. David J. Golden '55