Tax Subsidy for Parents

I agree with Davis that children need a parent at home during their first six or seven years of life, and that parental absence is largely responsible for juvenile crime and other sociopathic behavior. However, I must disagree with his proposed subsidy program to keep one parent at home.

Davis correctly asserts that two-income families are motivated by the desire to make financial ends meet. Two-income families were much less common 30 or 40 years ago, but a gradual reduction in the value of the dollar in the intervening years has made two incomes an economic necessity. This gradual inflation is a direct result of our government’s fiscal policy and its related deficit spending. Even a “low” inflation rate of 4% causes the value of the dollar to be cut in half in 18 years, and to be reduced by 75% in only 36 years.

The solution is not more government spending as proposed by Davis, but less government spending so that the budget can be balanced and the value of our earnings and savings will no longer continue to depreciate.

SHELDON C. SHALLON

Los Angeles