Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, Oct. 10, 2015

Legislators protect themselves

Thursday's lead story in ADN says certain legislators would rather make even deeper cuts to programs and services than "ask their constituents to start paying for government." What a novel concept — that citizens should somehow pay for the services they receive from government, such as road building and maintenance, licensing and permits, food inspection, etc.!

The reason certain legislators choose to lessen the quality of life in Alaska is because their top priority is to protect their positions in state government. They're not interested in governing well.

— Wendy Withrow

Anchorage

1 percent subvert public good

Ron Michelson (ADN, Oct. 7) confuses Bernie Sanders' democratic socialism — such as is practiced in much of (wealthy, peaceful) Europe — with communism, which, as he rightly observes "has resulted only in misery, tyranny, and death."

On the other hand, Michelson argues "the 1 percent" have created all the wealth, which they control. But the 1 percent have only "earned" so much wealth by failing to acknowledge (and pay for) the government services (and other community services) that have been involved in their wealth production.

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Further, the 1 percent have used — and continue to use — their vast wealth in order to skew the political-economic system in their own favor (i.e., class warfare from the top). The Koch brothers' attempts to control elections in their own favor is a case in point.

Michelson seems to see things only in black and white, with no middle ground. In fact there are alternatives to, on the one extreme, communism (such as we defeated in the Cold War), and, on the other extreme, oligarchy or plutocracy (such as what we are rapidly developing in the U.S.).

The founding fathers rightly feared great concentrations of wealth — not because they disapproved of creating wealth — but because they realized such great concentrations of wealth would inevitably be used to subvert the public good.

— Rick Wicks

Anchorage

Let’s see POMV bill this year

So Mike Dingman has added his name to the long list of people supporting Percent of Market Value Plan. It's looking like an idea whose time has come. Legislators, please consider a bill in the next regular session.

— Cheryl Lovegreen

Anchorage

The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.

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