Letter: Capitalism suffers if its diet is too rich

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

Two letter writers to the Las Vegas Sun have recently come to the defense of keeping taxes low for rich people, saying it is they who provide the jobs and innovations that keep this country moving, and that anyone willing to take risks can also get rich.

First, the rich cannot make anything without labor and the people to buy their products. Second, uncontrolled capitalism produces poverty and corruption. Most democracies have some form of socialism that provides for health care and other basic needs. That is less true of the United States, where a class war is going on and the rich are winning. The political tendencies have been for fewer social programs while shifting the tax burden to the poor and middle class.

Also, upward mobility in America is more difficult than in any other democracy except for England. A report by American University economics professor Tom Hertz, "Understanding Mobility in America," says that not only do the poor have little chance of reaching the top 5 percent, but the middle quartile have only a 1.8 percent chance.

Further, he says, between 1997 and 2004 the middle class experienced an increased "insecurity of income." The ratio of CEO pay to average wages went from 27 times in 1973 to 300 in 2000. The rich are upward mobile, and the rest of the country is downward mobile.

Some may resent the rich, but it is clear the rich have little love for the other 95 percent of us. The only sustainable economy is a moral economy where there is a shared prosperity. That has not been the case lately in this country. Competition is only good if the rules are fair, and we play by them.

Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas