‘Evils of Two Lessers:’ Bush and Dukakis Campaigns

Bush’s contention that Dukakis is “dividing Americans” because of their economic differences is astounding, considering that the economic chasms which exist today are the handiwork of the Reagan-Bush Administration (Part I, Sept. 20). Recent figures from the Census Bureau bear out that since 1980 the rich have gotten richer, the middle class and poor have gotten poorer, and the Republican’s “trickle down” economics have really been an exercise in “suction up” to benefit the wealthy.

Bush goes on to champion lowering the capital gains tax from 28% to 15%--so that the rich will be taxed even less on their profits and the rest of the country will bear the tax burden even more than before.

Bush finishes off with “ . . . You can’t help the poor by destroying the rich . . . you can’t lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.” Come, come, now--surely the rich can pay their proportionate share of the tax burden without being “destroyed,” and he conveniently ignores the underpaid working conditions too many Americans now experience to suggest that paying decent wages would “pull down” the wage payer. Further, if an employer cannot or will not pay good wages, then he is exploiting the exploitable and is a moral blot in our society. It would seem that Bush wishes to support the blots in their ability to take advantage of the weak.

JACQUELINE KERR

Los Angeles