Time for another great letter to the editor

[Monkeyleg]

I've been trying so hard to abstain from posting letters to the editor, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel offered up one so delicious tonight that I just had to share.

Enjoy.

Jobs won't fix economy

Putting the unemployed back to work will not fix the economy.

We will still have the same economy and the same people going into debt in order for them to buy back, at high retail prices, the products they produced at lower wages; nothing will have changed. And when these people become weighed down with debt they no longer can service, another economic crash looms on the horizon.

So why is it thought that reducing the numbers of the unemployed is the remedy to get the economy going again, when all it will do is bring on yet another economic collapse down the road? This is the nature of the beast, and it has no cure.

It will continue until laws are introduced to limit profit-making to no more than, say, 10% over the previous year's inflation rate, and all profit in excess of that is to be taken as taxes. While this will not eliminate economic collapses entirely, it will extend by perhaps 15 or 20 years the timeline between these collapses.

It's that, or be prepared for the many more economic collapses yet to come.

John Rowe
Milwaukee

Yes, why reduce unemployment? Why not expand it, until only those making more than X amount of dollars are doing any work? Then, confiscate from those productive people anything more than 10% of inflation-adjusted profit to pay for those not working.

It will be liberal heaven, otherwise known as hell.

[TommyGunn]

 

Some people don't have the good sense God gave a pump handle.

It will continue until laws are introduced to limit profit-making to no more than, say, 10% over the previous year's inflation rate, and all profit in excess of that is to be taken as taxes. While this will not eliminate economic collapses entirely, it will extend by perhaps 15 or 20 years the timeline between these collapses.

WHAT is this guy, an outright COMMUNIST??  Mr. Rowe ought to check his history books and find out what happened to the former Soviet Union.

"Take everything over last year's inflation rate as a tax"  
Hey Mr. Rowe, how 'bouts you pay everything left over from your pay after you pay for rent, food, shelter, gasoline, clothes, and all other needs, to the govt. as tax???  How about them apples?  Sound good?

[zxcvbob]

I really couldn't follow the first part of that -- maybe cuz I've been drinking.  But the second half seems like a non sequitur.  The solution to every problem is a punitive tax?  

(Are you sure that's Milwaukee and not Madison?)

[wmenorr67]

Wow

[HankB]

OK, let's say the person making "profit" is a doctor, and you're going to take everything he makes over a defined amount as tax.

Once he hits that limit - say, on July 1 - is he even going to work any more? Will ANY person - doctor, lawyer, nurse, plumber, electrician, carpenter, whoever - continue to work once they hit the point where 100% of their earnings will be taxed at 100%?

Good luck getting ANY goods or services late in the year.

"The stupid, it hurts."

[wmenorr67]

Curious if the author of this letter is this John Rowe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rowe_(CEO)_Exelon

John W. Rowe is the chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the energy corporation Exelon Corporation, a utility holding company headquartered in Chicago. Exelon has the largest market capitalization in the electric utility industry.

While CEO of Exelon in 2009, John W. Rowe earned a total compensation of $12,036,882, which included a base salary of $1,468,077, a cash bonus of $1,573,825, stocks granted of $6,341,383, and options granted of $2,236,650.

And a little info on Exelon.

Chicago mayor, former Congressman and Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was a "key player" representing Unicom Corp., the parent of Commonwealth Edison, in forging its merger with Peco Energy Co. to create utility giant Exelon Corp. in 1999 when Goldman Sachs was also advising Unicom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exelon

[Tallpine]

OK, let's say the person making "profit" is a doctor, and you're going to take everything he makes over a defined amount as tax.

Once he hits that limit - say, on July 1 - is he even going to work any more? Will ANY person - doctor, lawyer, nurse, plumber, electrician, carpenter, whoever - continue to work once they hit the point where 100% of their earnings will be taxed at 100%?

Good luck getting ANY goods or services late in the year.

"The stupid, it hurts."

Who is Ron Paul?      

[Perd Hapley]

I can't get past the part right at the beginning, where he thinks that reducing unemployment is supposed to boost the economy. Doesn't he have that switched around? 

[MechAg94]

I can't get past the part right at the beginning, where he thinks that reducing unemployment is supposed to boost the economy. Doesn't he have that switched around? 

Yes, he does which only further shows how little he understands economics.

[Tallpine]

I can tell you that reducing unemployment by one boosted my economy 

[AJ Dual]

Hey Monkeyleg..

If I submitted a letter to the editor in response to this one that simply states "Kill a Commie for Mommy."

Think they'll print it? 

[Monkeyleg]

Sure they would. I think they've decided that the more outrageous the letter, the better it serves their sales.

[AJ Dual]

Sure they would. I think they've decided that the more outrageous the letter, the better it serves their sales.

BTW, JSOnline is supposedly switching to a WSJ-like paid subscription format sooner or later. (Free for the dead tree subscribers, some sort of fee for the online only users...)

I think it marks the beginning of their death as a paper.

[Monkeyleg]

I think it marks the beginning of their death as a paper.

The beginning of the paper's death was in the late 90's or early "oughts".  My parents and other people I knew canceled their subscriptions, but continued to get the paper anyway. They were having to give the paper away to keep the circulation numbers up for ad revenues.

I suspect they're going to be surprised at how little revenue their online subscription generates. They were the only real newspaper in the state, and so had a near monopoly. Online they're going to have to compete with real journalism, something their reporters and columnists aren't accustomed to.