Big government is here to protect us all

To the editor:

In Larry Elder’s Sunday commentary about big government, he talked about how better off we were in 1900 when taxes were only 7 percent. But what was life in 1900 America really like?

Most Americans lived on farms without electricity or indoor plumbing. We had few municipal utilities. Factory workers, including children, toiled six or seven days a week, making starvation wages in dangerous conditions. There were no minimum wage or child labor laws.

Dangerous chemicals and raw sewage were dumped routinely into our drinking water. There was no Environmental Protection Agency. Thousands of people died every year from poisoned food. We did not have a Food and Drug Administration.

By all estimates, in 1900 there were almost a quarter-million orphans living on streets of New York City, without welfare or child services. The majority of elderly people lived in disease and poverty without Social Security or Medicare.

That was America in 1900.

I deplore government waste as much as anyone, but believe that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. America’s tax burden is the lowest it’s been since World War II, and the Bush tax cuts didn’t create one new job in eight years.

Personally, I want my government to be bigger than Enron, Exxon, Blue Cross or Goldman Sachs.

Keith Hubbell

Las Vegas

Pay cuts

To the editor:

As a member of a dying breed, the private-sector taxpayer, I applaud Mayor Oscar Goodman and his plan to carry out mass firings (Review-Journal, Wednesday).

I’m insulted by arrogant union crybabies saying that an 8 percent pay cut will put them into bankruptcy. What a crock. My income has gone down by almost 50 percent. I’m not getting anything from anyone.

You go, Oscar. Fire them all — the sooner the better.

Bruce Feher

Las Vegas