Question misleading

I can provide answers to Rob Leach’s (Nov. 28) questions.

No one has ever suggested that simply taxing the rich more would be sufficient to either cover our spending or pay off our debt. What has been suggested is that along with curtailing spending and limiting tax loopholes and deductions, a slight increase in the tax rate on earnings over $250,000 would combine to bring down our deficit and debt.

As to the source of revenue, all of it derives from the private sector: There is no other source from which it could come. And everyone benefits from taxes and spending; whether as a user of roads, a consumer protection system, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, etc. If you live in this country, you benefit from the public sector one way or another.

Of course, the rich have the freedom to operate in any way that is legal, and they have exercised that right by outsourcing, not because of taxation but to maximize their profits.

No, the rich are not different from the rest of us in motivation, and so even if they are required to contribute a little more of their high profits to the society, they will not stop wanting to be rich and richer.

Peter Grossman

Spokane