JOPLIN, Mo. —
One hears the word “fair” quite a bit lately. One often hears that it is “fair” to ask the families making over $250,000 to pay their “fair” share when in fact they already are paying much more than their “fair” share.
On the other hand, is it really “fair” that 47 percent of the people pay exactly nothing for national defense, the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the airways, the Food and Drug Administration, cleaning out the toilets in the national parks and recreation areas, and the salaries of the Supreme Court justices, to name just a few? Frankly, that is unfair.
What really is pathetic is that many in that same 47 percent are not satisfied with what they have and many politicians continually promise to give them more. One would think that this situation might result in people rioting as it has in Greece. The bad news is that it is not the payers who might be motivated to riot but the freeloaders themselves.
The guy that said that democracy won’t last surely had it right. Who knows where this will end? It is interesting to note that the per-capita income in South Korea is 30 or more times that of North Korea. So much for trying to make everyone and everything equal.
Duane O. Eberhardt
Joplin
Opinion
Your View: What’s fair?
- Opinion
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Our View: Safer schools
Being able to see for ourselves what would have happened to our children had they been standing in the main hall of their schools during the May 22, 2011, tornado had a profound effect on our understanding of safe schools.
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Marilyn Beasley, guest columnist: Claiming responsibility for abuse of power
Over the past few months we’ve witnessed the abuse of power by President Barack Obama and his administration.
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Our View: ‘Why?’ has no answer
Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. There were pictures on the walls and memories in every room.
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Our View: Absent from House
We can’t figure out why two Missouri legislators think they should be elected to the U.S. House when it appears they can’t seem to show up to take care of business in the Missouri House.
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Your View: Terrorism is terrorism
In the May 13 issue of The Joplin Globe there was an Associated Press article concerning the New Orleans shooting.
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Your View: Terrible injustice
I see this Jasper County nuisance law as a terrible injustice on the rights of the residents of Jasper County.
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Your View: Should we be outraged?
Were there effusive apologies following the lockdown of Boston as most of the continent indulged vicariously in the ongoing manhunt?
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Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
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Other Views: Conflicts in SEC
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Our View: Fixing failure
Some 1,200 injured workers will finally get the payments they are owed. In its final week in session, Missouri’s General Assembly, through bipartisan efforts, passed a solution to address the insolvency of the state’s Second Injury Fund.
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