Don’t vote selfishly

Our American forbearers taxed themselves to create publicly owned right-of-way, ports, canals, roads, bridges, dams, airports, safety and educational institutions; plus telescopes, satellites, space stations, and strong national security. We regulate users of public infrastructure so they don’t abuse our quality of life. We now publicly own some $30 trillion worth of national assets and have only half that much debt.

Somehow our generation has developed the selfish view that we shouldn’t tax ourselves as much as our forbearers did in order to advance the forefront of civilization. Now our country is falling off in many international rankings. The race to civilization is no longer our national sport.

Our newfound low-tax mentality has put trillions of dollars on the shelves of businesses and individuals who can’t find any useful private work to invest in; yet there is no limit to the public work we need to be doing. Now our workforce languishes while we have great flood, drought and forest fire problems whose plumbing needs urgent attention, but we no longer have public money for such needs.

It’s extremely important that we all vote with our public interests in mind. Remember, it’s we voters who determine our nation’s future.

Mickey Thompson

Spokane