Newspaper Article

READERS WRITE

SUSAN C. BAKER, JAMIE KAYE, ALLEN E. DONALDSON, JOHN T. HARRIS, SHAWN BUCKLEY, WILLIAM HAFFNER, JOSEPH BROWER, KEN LIBBEY

2005

Overview

Since economics is an amoral study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services with alternative uses, and since [Jay Bookman] has little proven competence in economics or philosophy, it is difficult to take seriously his claims about \"economic morality\" in light of tax policy and corporate activities. He doesn't ask, \"What would happen to HP and Compaq if they did not merge?\" Would they go out of business, impoverishing that many more tens of thousands of workers and shareholders? Clearly, Bookman exaggerates economic morality to push the anti-capitalistic position that any tax cut or corporate merger is immoral. Liberals like him should examine both sides of issues before passing irrelevant moral judgments. Whatever happened to shared sacrifices in time of war? The military grunts and their folks get the hardships and spill their blood (\"Yes, but they are volunteers . . . \") while the rest get tax cuts --- generous ones, for the well-to-do. Every enacted tax cut favors corporations or the rich, not the working man. The tax rate is cut on dividends, but not on dividends earned on a 401(k) as it's cashed in. Inheritance taxes will be eliminated, using the phony argument that wealth was taxed once already. Great wealth is almost always the result of capital appreciation, therefore it was never taxed.

• Publisher: Atlanta Journal Constitution, LLC