Little people overlooked

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans (the “big people,” only 31 million, including most Republican and Democratic congressmen) control over 73 percent of the nation’s net worth; the other 90 percent (the “little people,” approximately 280 million) control less than 27 percent. “Only the little people pay taxes,” Leona Helmsley said.

Life would improve for the little people if we could: have as many tax breaks that relate to us as the big people do; pay the same federal tax as many corporations do; have one-half the paid vacation days as congressmen have; raise our income whenever we choose, as cable companies can; have our annual incomes increase by the same percentage as big people’s; earn on our savings and CDs one-half of what Avista’s investors earn; receive the same pampered treatment from the legal system that big people get in similar circumstances.

But we are little people, and no politicians in either party really care about us. We can’t donate huge amounts to their campaigns, nor give them cushy jobs when they leave office. So the politicians pander to big people, including corporations, and do what those interests want, rather than what we little people and the nation need.

William E. Mahaney

Spokane