South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Society, as a whole, beating American dream to death, reader says

To the editor:

Why is the American dream dying?

The American dream is dying because we, as a society, are beating it to death.

Class warfare permeated our thought processes to the point that we are destroying it from both the left and the right.

Our president has orchestrated a four-year frontal attack on the successful in this country by portraying them as somehow not paying their fair share even though the top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the federal income tax bill.

Come on, we all love a free ride, but let’s be honest; they do pay their fair share. If you want them to pay more, why can’t you just say, “Hey, we need you to pay more. Sorry for taking advantage of you, but you’re the one who has it.”

For some reason, the left feels it necessary to demonize the successful to make political points. Heck, they even organized the 99-percent movement to do just that.

Why don’t we ever have an honest discussion about the 50 percent of us that contribute nothing to the common good and pay no income tax?

Polls show that a majority of Americans think the rich should fork over more money to the federal government yet when the lottery recently hit $400 million dollars, a poll reported that the vast majority felt the fair amount of taxes they should pay, if they won, should not exceed 15 percent.

Unfortunately, the left is not alone in the pounding of the American dream. The right is now pounding away at public sector employees as if they are our enemy.

Absolutely, we must get government spending under control. Our national debt is 120 percent of the gross domestic product and we are heading for a national economic disaster if we don’t get it under control — and soon.

But public employees are not the problem. The recent outrage over the Mehlville school board giving teachers a 1.5-percent salary increase is a shameful example.

First of all, a 1.5-percent increase doesn’t even keep up with inflation, so they are actually being paid less this coming year.

As a business owner, I will tell you that if you don’t honor and respect your employees and reward them for their hard work and loyalty, productivity will decrease and morale will suffer.

We want motivated teachers, and it is disrespectful and anti-productive to demean them. Conservatives have always believed that if you work hard and do a good job, you will be rewarded and be successful.

This is all part of the American dream.

Why are we now going after other hard-working Americans just because they are public employees? All of us are in this together and jealousy, envy and greed have no place in finding solutions.

As a conservative, I see no reason to give this government one penny more of anyone’s money until they can prove they can spend it wisely. They now spend $1.44 for every dollar they take from us.

I think it’s time they show us they can be trusted before we give them another dime. They are spending our future and destroying the American dream. Let’s stop beating on each other and hold our leaders responsible.

When President Obama was a senator he said: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.

“Leadership means that ‘The buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

Let’s hold him to his words and make this a government of the people again. It is the only way to restore the American dream.

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