Letters to the editor, March 2

Wealth should be earned, not passed out

We found Eugene Paslov's statement Feb. 18 truly chilling: "Deciding who has wealth, how it is created, how it can be achieved and who has the power to transfer it is one of the most critical political/governmental functions of our time."

Who has wealth should be decided by those who earn it. Wealth is created and achieved through initiative, hard work and the willingness to take risks. In a free society, wealth should not be transferred from one to another at the pleasure of government; rather, it is generated and becomes available to more and more individuals as the means to create it is unimpeded by a capricious government which assumes more power than our founders intended and our Constitution allows.

If a private company makes too many fiscal mistakes, it goes out of business. If government makes fiscal mistakes, it looks for more citizens to tax, and that's the top 1 percent of earners owning 34.6 percent of the wealth that Paslov cites pays 40 percent of the taxes, by the way (2008 IRS).

Or, it simply prints more money, rendering it less valuable, or continues to recklessly borrow.

That's the problem with too much governmental power: It becomes that monarch Paslov referred to, which historically controlled wealth. As it grows and mutates, all decisions and functions are left in the hands of a powerful, corruptible few.

Gary and Ruth Ailes

Carson City

We need more Democrats like Truman

Dr. Eugene Paslov continues his tirades on his views of the virtues of the Democratic Party and the vices of the Republican Party. In his Feb. 18 commentary, he speaks of the abuses of CEOs.

I feel that currently we have too many members of both parties in Congress and the executive branch of government who are more interested in their self-gratification and retaining their position than they are in the future of this country and its citizens.

They have dictated a requirement that all citizens are to have medical insurance - while exempting themselves for a better plan paid for by the taxpayers. They have given themselves pay increases while cutting benefits to taxpayers. They have given themselves a retirement plan for serving only one term.

I feel their excessive abuse of taxpayers' money for the above, along with their various junkets, use of insider information for personal gain, and programs purely for the sake of obtaining votes at a cost to the taxpayers has greatly influenced the thoughts of the general population as to what is or isn't proper and acceptable.

Leadership by example?

No wonder we have CEOs, both Democrats and Republican, running amok.

Remember the guy who sat in the Oval Office and used his own 3-cent stamps when conducting his personal business? The one who said, "The buck stops here"? The one who fired a five-star general?

We currently need more Democrats like Harry S. Truman in our government.

Sanford E. Deyo

Minden