Enough is enough

Today's post is a response to an especially irritating article in today's NY Times, as referenced below. Those who have the Times online can access the entire article (I"m still not up to posting direct links on this blog - maybe later). The article, which runs three pages on line is a "heart-rending" account of the misery of mere millionaires who are still working themselves into an early grave, "because their neighbors are even richer." This is nothing less than a sociopatic mental illness. The only cure is a severe progressive tax, like the one we had in this country before the Reagan devolution. Failing that, an eighty percent reduction in the Dow would go a long way. As I have been saying and writing for many years, the last time we acted like a civilization was during the last Great Depression, when we knew that the common enemy was the failed economic system and that only cooperation would be capable of defeating that enemy. As long as so many minimal humans have so much money, what Michael Moore calls the Horatio Alger myth (Hey! I might be rich someday too! God forbid we should put limits on personal wealth!) prevents us from addressing the common needs, which can only be met by limiting greed.

I am well aware of the long odds against getting a letter published in the NY Times, but, as indicated in the previous post ("Therapy"), I maintain what remains of my sanity by having an experience of myself DOING something, even when the results are problematic at best. Today's letter follows:

Editor:

It's hard to imagine a more telling indictment of our grievously divided society than Gary Rivilin's article (In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don't Feel Rich" - 8/5/07). About three thousand years ago, a Taoist sage said it best: "Those who know that enough is enough, always have enough." To which I can only add, those who don't, don't. When enough is never enough, those who do have enough to influence if not dictate the policies of our government will be rewarded endlessly while the rest of us struggle to get by with much less than enough. For shame!