Meanwhile, the ultra-rich get richer
While millions of hard-working Americans struggle to feed their families and keep their housing, an unjust parallel reality strikes me. Just this past year, we’ve watched billionaire wealth increase more than $1 trillion, 40% higher than before the COVID-19 crisis began. For those of us who survive on low incomes and receive poor social services because of limited money for state and local governments, awareness of this great wealth divide only causes anger and resentment. We can no longer maintain this unhealthy and immoral condition if we want to call ourselves a moral democracy.
In Denver, the homeless problem has skyrocketed as more and more people lose their housing due to COVID-related unemployment and the selfishness of the federal government in providing relief.
Elizabeth Warren’s new bill, the Tax Act of 2021, would tax the very wealthy to provide funding for social services, school reopening, COVID vaccine distribution, and food support for workers. It is our national obligation and moral duty to support this bill and create a society in which everyone can live a decent life.
Women, racial minorities, children and working men would all benefit from this tax and our society could be recognized as a leader in civil rights and opportunity for all.
Please contact your legislators and ask them to support this bill and the changes it would make. Unless you are a billionaire, you will be glad you did.
Laura Avant, Denver
On taxes, we need to get specific about “fair share”
There are a number of terms used by Democrats that are never defined but are indeed powerful. The term “fair share” is always trotted out when there is a tax increase in the offing. We all want fairness and we all feel that every American should share in the tax burden imposed on us by the federal government; however, when the phrase “fair share” is thrown out, it is used with the implication that there are individuals who are not paying their “fair share.”
In 2017, 50% of all taxpayers paid 97% of all individual income taxes while the other 50% paid the remaining 3%. This situation is influenced by our progressive tax laws that say in effect, “The more you make, the more they take.”
More importantly, the progressive part of the tax code shows that the percent taken rises with increased income. In other words, we don’t all pay the same percentage. If all of us did pay the same percent, that would then indeed be the true definition of “fair share.”
If you feel that there are too many people who are not paying their “fair share,” write to your U.S. Congress members as well as your U.S. Senators who write the tax code, telling them specifically which tax laws should be changed or added as well as which loopholes should or should not exist. Be sure to be specific, avoiding nebulous terms such as “fair share.”
Fred Ruder, Broomfield
Disheartening insights into the future
Re: “Pump up the volume,” March 14 feature story and “ ‘They’re getting bigger, faster,’ ” news story
As a professional, touring, and — by many accounts — successful musician for over 40 years, the story on music-streaming revenues revealed, frankly, nothing new for me.
For every Nathaniel Rateliff or Tennis, hundreds of lesser-known musicians in Colorado like me need concerts to happen to make a living. COVID-19 struck down a great year planned and has laid low 2021, as the new year doesn’t seem to want to get off the ground. Spotify’s success reiterates to me streaming’s perpetuation of the notion that people don’t need to pay for the recorded music that artists take great care and expense to write, arrange, produce and record. Why buy the cow when you have the milk for free?
As well, itap disheartening to note that some people think they can bypass years of dues-paying that make for a great performance with streaming instead.
More than anything, I want live music to come back — with a vengeance.
Meanwhile, back on the front page, Bruce Finley’s impeccable and stone-cold look at what our future here in the West looks like this coming fire season is even more disturbing. Every story he reports on should be required reading for anyone who cares about our planet in general and our state in particular. Thank you, Finley.
I fear these articles tell the story of how extinct I’ll be in a few years. But itap Finley’s reporting on climate change that keeps me feeling guarded about the future and awake at night.
Mollie O’Brien, Denver
Editor’s note: O’Brien is a Grammy-winning singer and Colorado Music Hall of Fame Inductee.
Buying promises easy; keeping them not so much
Re: “Bennetap plan to save – and grow – the middle class,” March 14 commentary
So Sen. Michael Bennet wants to “save and grow” the middle class? Democrats are extremely adept at buying votes by giving “free” stuff to people. Only, we both know that the stuff is not free. It is a very transparent form of political corruption. They are mortgaging the future of our grandkids to buy votes. The massive debt entailed in President Joe Biden’s lavish spending will come home to roost — sooner rather than later.
I am old enough to remember the last round of massive spending of this sort, the “War on Poverty,” in the ‘60s — part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society.” How did that work out? Poverty and racial distrust are still very much with us some 60 years later. And a dollar today buys only a tiny fraction of what it did then. Amazingly, both poverty and racial distrust are the greatest in large cities, controlled for decades by Democrats.
It is easy to make promises — and give away other people’s money to buy votes. History has shown us that it is much harder to accomplish what you have promised to do.
Richard Stacy, Highlands Ranch
Carroll gets it
Re: “An outrageous attack on free speech,” March 14 commentary
Finally, an article in The Denver Post op-ed page that understands the constitution, free speech, and the consequences of giving federal government control of individual freedoms of expression. Bravo to Vincent Carroll for standing up to the “censors” that love to hear their own music but hate other musicians and their lyrics. In reality, all music should be heard and those who don’t like the music being played only need to switch stations.
Ernie Cline, Thornton
Act won’t increase fairness
Re: “Protecting the free press in the digital age,” March 17 commentary
Regarding Rep. Ken Buck’s column: His Journalism Competition and Preservation Act tries to have it both ways.
Social media (Google, Facebook) are monopolistic. But the bill he is co-sponsoring in the House includes a four-year exemption from antitrust laws. He claims this will allow media companies to more effectively negotiate with the tech giants but conveniently fails to mention that the media companies positioned to move into small markets are not “mom and pop” operations by any means.
Since the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, media companies with a very strong political slant (Sinclair, for example) have bought up local papers and stations in many markets. In the guise of saving journalism from the big bad giants, he is ready to open the door to companies like Sinclair, which have no competition in their markets, guaranteeing bias in citizens’ information.
The fragmenting of news reporting by social media and media conglomerates has much to answer for (insurrection at the Capitol; large numbers of Republicans clinging to the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from their candidate.) Giving them unfettered access to small markets is not going to increase journalistic competition or fairness; instead, it will lock in for the foreseeable future the biases built into media empires.
Nancy B. Weil, Denver
Biden’s first few weeks
It seems backward that President Joe Biden has opened the border, but the schools are still closed. Nancy Pelosi is hoping to quell a desire to finish former President Donald Trump’s wall by putting one around the Capitol Building. Walls don’t work, do they?
To stimulate the economy, Biden is giving people some of their money back. Wouldn’t it be easier to leave their money with them originally instead of taking it and filtering it through a bunch of bureaucrats?
Biden is applauding himself for getting vaccinations done now. That wouldn’t have been possible without former President Donald Trump getting the vaccine fast-tracked in the first place.
Don Bevis, Aurora
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