LETTER: ‘Free’ stuff costs a lot of money

I just returned from a four-month stay visiting family and friends in Italy and France. It is interesting to note that my friend of more than 50 years, who owns a small company (two employees) in Italy, paid 68 percent income tax this past year.

His 24-year-old, middle-class son, who lives and works in France in a restaurant, told me he paid 70 percent income tax this past year. He works 9.5 months a year just to pay his government taxes.

That’s socialism in action, folks. Believe me when I say he understands there is no such thing as a free lunch and that the average middle-class person is the one who ultimately pays for that so-called free government-run health care and other “free stuff” that all the 2020 Democrat presidential hopefuls are promising.