An income inequality problem

Rob Leach (Jan. 17) repeated the tired saw “America doesn’t have a taxation problem … it has a spending problem.” You could also say the poor have a spending problem. If those lazy bums could learn to live on minimum wage life would be peachy.

He also said if only we would suspend taxes for a year, we could all be rich with “massive” gains that would occur. He failed to mention that our national debt would immediately double to $30 trillion, but why quibble? Figure out the interest on $30 trillion per year.

The problem is that the distribution of wealth in this country is skewed heavily to the rich and will get worse if continued. This skewing results in approximately one-third of the population living in poverty while the top 1 percent live like kings.

The present distribution is not written in stone. It comes about as the rich buy more of the elections, and thus legislators who pass more laws that favor the rich and create more poor: Abolish minimum wage, break the unions, create more tax breaks for the rich and corporations, and then wait for the revolution.

Thank God Republicans made guns so accessible.

D. Neil Fitzgerald

Spokane Valley