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Tax wealthy to restore nation's prosperity

What kind of a government do you want for yourself and your children? You have two choices. You can choose an austere government with low taxes and few services or you can choose one that has high taxes but many services.

If you are independently wealthy (the 1 percent) you probably prefer the former because you can personally afford to purchase any needed services. All your needs are met, your taxes are low, and your wealth compounds fast.

If you are poor or middle-class, you and your descendants will probably be much better off living under a government with higher taxes and more services.

Things like day care and maternity leave for working mothers, universal preschool, free college education, a minimum wage that is a living wage and full employment with the government as the employer of last resort.

All children, affluent or not, would have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Poverty should be all but nonexistent in this, the richest country the world has ever seen.

Where will the extra revenue come from to fund such programs? Surprisingly, to most, the poor and middle-class would find their taxes little changed and often lower. All we need to do to fund such programs is to restore the taxes on the wealthy and on corporations to the level they were when Jimmy Carter was president.

The tax breaks and subsidies Congress has granted over the last 40 years cost our people tens of trillions of dollars. Except for that, our national debt would have been fully paid off years ago.

Our wealth and income disparity is worse than at any time in our history. We may need to institute changes like this before our ghettos explode. It may save capitalism, as Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt did in their days.

Kent Kirkwood

Mount prospect

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