• Tell government to get out of the way •
Voice your opinion
Tell government to get out of the way
Now we get to the crux of the matter (“Government reform,” Letters, May 14). The question isn’t simply how do we fix health care, the question is where do we look for a solution to the wealth distribution problem in America and fix our broken health care system at the same time?
Mr. Zwiebel wants government to do it all, and I firmly believe the fix must come in the form of government allowing and providing the incentives for the free market to fix it.
I would submit that the 10 percent of the richest Americans who control 70 percent of the wealth in America is approximately the same percentage of people who are willing and able to educate themselves better, create more, risk more, and work harder than the rest of us.
As one who has employed, and is employing, many people in several countries over the past 30 years I can tell you it is extremely difficult to find workers in America today who are willing to engage in hard work. When I started employing people in the 1980s I would estimate I could find about 5 in 10 workers who provided a fair days labor for a fair wage, and they were richly rewarded for it. Today that number is 1 in 10 or less.
The increasing “entitlement” attitude of our spoiled population has also contributed to the widening wealth distribution numbers. That growing percentage of us who didn’t live through the great depression, haven’t learned the value of money or a good education, and who just don’t understand that it’s education and hard work that pays off, want government to bestow “free stuff” on them because they don’t have enough. Whatever happened to the concept that if you don’t have enough, get smarter and work harder!
The author states: “I agree that many federal and state government agencies are broken. Our government is full of politicians who have been influenced by corporate interests.” It’s not only corporations who influence government decisions, how about the voters?
And there is no such thing as “corporate aristocracy” as the author so flippantly claims. The vast majority of corporations are stand-alone entities who compete against each other and are owned by shareholders like you and your next door neighbors. Apple, Microsoft, Google, General Motors, and all the rest are run by executives who work 13 hour days 6 days a week trying to figure out how to capture more market share than their competitors so their stock prices can go up and their thousands of shareholders can benefit; and yes, if they’re successful the executives make a ton of money! Good for them because that can be you or your children if they’re willing to pay the same price.
The author also states “That turning the “solution” (fix of our broken systems) over to corporations brought us the Gulf oil spill; the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster; two unpaid-for wars; and the 2008 financial disaster. Huh? How ridiculous is that!
The Gulf spill happened because several companies didn’t communicate and had shoddy work practices by their employees on the ground. Fukushima was caused by the biggest earthquake, fire, tsunami disaster in a hundred years, the unpaid-for wars now backed by Obama were caused by a terrorist organization killing more Americans on our own soil than died at Pearl Harbor, and the 2008 financial disaster was caused by a housing collapse brought about by Jimmy Carter who pushed for and signed the Community Redevelopment Reinvestment Act into law in 1977 which mandated banks offer no qualifier mortgages to everyone no matter what their financial condition because “minorities” had to have a piece of the American pie too. Then Bill Clinton, and the Republicans, in 1999 approved and signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act making it even easier for banks to manipulate, or ignore, borrowers financial data to make more loans so more people could own homes.
Banks and Mortgage Companies got drunk and made a lot of money with their new found “government” mandate of easy loans and a house for everyone. Of course “government” got votes, but forgot about the concept that the mortgages would have to be paid on time and in the right amounts. Even the middle class jumped on board and got drunk on the “government” approved “your house is your personal money tree” debacle.
I do agree with Mr. Zwiebel that “Government is the only tool that might respond to me, so I work for government reform.” Just tell government to get out of the way, forget about taking over our health care system which is 17 percent of the private economy, create wise incentives for job creating companies and workers to fix any perceived problems in our economy, and quit trying to own and micro-manage the one thing you know nothing about, business.
Gordon Oswald, Kapa‘a
Voice your opinion
In response to the Sunday editorial “End apathy: get engaged in county budget process,” may I suggest a simple solution to a complex budget as we near the completion of the mayor’s proposed budget with final voting and public testimony on May 25.
Kaua‘i County needs to keep some of this money for a rainy day fund, budget cuts straight across the board, at 20 percent starting with each of the seven overpaid council members making $56,000 a year (the chair makes an additional $7,000), $500 a month car allowance and some of the best health insurance available to man (and woman).
Nobody needs a pay raise with taxpayer money and a 20 percent cut across the board makes for a simple and money-saving technique that could easily be employed if everyone tightened their belts.
County Council members are listed as a part-time job; the salary should be as such. These are public servants folks. They work for us!
Get involved, voice your opinions with public testimony, letters to the editor or by standing on the street corner with a sign that reads, “Enough already,” or something you feel passionate about.
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
