LETTER: Greed is a sin against our neighbors

To the editor:

The top 25 hedge fund managers in America made more last year than the combined incomes of all the kindergarten teachers in America. The top 50 corporations in America paid no taxes until Congress passed a regulation that they must pay at least 15% of income in taxes.

Some people continue to defend the “trickle-down” economic theory, which assumes that economic growth encouraged by a free market will succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in goodness of those wielding economic power and in the compassionate workings of the prevailing economic system.

The causes which destroyed the ancient republics were numerous, but in Rome, one principle cause was the vast inequalities of fortunes. Adam Smith said capitalism is America’s core economic principle. He also said capitalism would not work unless it was encased in ethics, morals and values focused on doing what’s right for the common good of all people. St. Thomas Aquinas said greed was a sin directly against one’s neighbor, since one man cannot over abound in external riches without another man lacking them.

The average Social Security retirement benefit in Wisconsin is $1,435 a month. Twenty-two percent of Wisconsin residents over the age 65 get almost all of their income from Social Security Retirement benefits. Sen. Rick Scott, from Florida, and Wisconsin’s own Sen. Ron Johnson proposed that Social Security and Medicare programs be terminated every five years and Congress would have to vote to reinstate them.

President Joe Biden called them out on their position in his State of the Union speech. Both men are some of the richest senators in Congress and have instituted all sorts of tax exemptions for their class of people.

We all do better when we all do better.

Herbert J. Grover, Gresham