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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Class act? ‘Envy’ shifts focus from greed
There you go again, Cal Thomas (“Envy drives outrage over AIG,” March 19 column).
Whenever rich, conservative Republicans cannot morally defend greed, they always play the class warfare or class envy card. During the 1980s, a decade known for greed, then-President Ronald Reagan often played the class envy card for political gain.
Does Thomas have a valid contention in saying envy is the main reason society’s less affluent are so outraged by the AIG debacle?
Is it possible most Americans are outraged because the greed that caused the debacle, and the after-effects, is morally and spiritually wrong – not that the people are envious of those who have more money than they have?
Cal Thomas is a Christian who knows the Bible. Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to “sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor?” Why did the Apostle Paul write, “The love of money is the root of all evil?”
Did envy motivate Jesus and Paul to say those words?
Paul L. Whiteley Sr.
Louisville, Ky.
Fast fix for state’s financial problems
If all the cars with airfoils on the rear drove fast enough for the fin to affect car handling, Arizona would have no financial problems. It could survive on speeding fines alone.
Dick Westerfield
Sun City
Thank Congress to mind its own business
More than 240 House Democrats voted for a bill that confiscates 90 percent of some money that was legally obtained and contractually owed to the recipients.
This is bad enough, but unsurprising: After all, Democratic politicians’ core reason for existence is to support harmful ideas.
What is even more shameful is that 85 House Republicans also voted to back this bill, in violation of the moral principle espoused by founder John Adams: “A government of laws, and not of men.”
If the Republicans hope to take back power in Washington, D.C., over 2010-12, this is a big step backward that does not encourage those of us who understand what John Adams meant.
Republicans should consistently defend individual rights – including the right to peacefully enter into a private contract – not vote like Democrats.
For those folks who respond that the government owns 80 percent of AIG now, I counter that corporate welfare is always a bad idea, that this whole AIG fiasco is but one of many reasons why, and that the fault for all of this is not with the AIG employees who signed contracts well before their company received ill-gotten funds, but rather with the execrable politicians who voted to provide them corporate welfare in the first place.
Mark Kalinowski
New York, N.Y.
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