On the estate tax; antibiotics and the meat industry; and a new approach to cyclists and motorists sharing the road.
Death and taxes — and what’s left
Re “Why not tax inherited wealth?,” Opinion, July 6
Every person I know who has received an inheritance has spent it like the free money it is.
Just last week a friend pulled up in a new luxury car, telling me how she had just purchased a whole house full of furniture and was planning a vacation — all courtesy of her late grandmother. Her brother and nephew had also bought expensive cars.
Isn’t this what the government wants? For Americans to spend money?
Sounds like not taxing estates is the best stimulus package you could ask for.
M. Downing
Sierra Madre
The article by professor Ray D. Madoff is typical of academia, which dwells in ideas and book-learning without regard for real-life experience.
Madoff argues for wealth redistribution, pure and simple. By advocating additional taxation on earned money, she shows a lack of understanding of the process of moneymaking.
If the wealth in this country were distributed evenly to everyone, we would have the same lack of motivation we see in professors once they achieve tenure.
Carlos Ferreyra
Valley Glen
Madoff claims that the return of the estate tax would help correct a “disparity in wealth,” but she neglects to draw a line between the overly wealthy who need to be taxed and those who don’t. Without that line, there’s no guarantee that an estate tax would actually “[alleviate] the tax burden for the less well-off.”
Moreover, what kind of perverse incentives would we be creating by punishing people for a lifetime of hard work and honestly-earned success?
One of the greatest things about accumulating a lifetime of wealth in this country is the freedom to decide whom to pass it on to when one has shoved off the old mortal coil.
We may not be able to take it with us, but we should at least be able to control where our material wealth goes after we’re gone.
Evan Banks
Arlington, Va.
Madoff’s Op-Ed about the estate (or, for those who prefer, death) tax is a clear, concise and well-written statement about this divisive issue and deserves to be read by every person in America who cares about the topic.
Not only does Madoff skillfully debunk the so-called double taxation argument, she actually adds — gasp — historical perspective and context.
Further, she rightfully links the estate tax question with the growing disparity in wealth that, as she bluntly and correctly puts it, will “harm our democracy.”
Over the last four decades or so, reductions in income and capital gains tax rates, generous tax deductions and write-offs, and the poorly regulated investment and banking industries, among many others, have already fattened the wallets of the well-off beyond reason, while most middle-class and working-class Americans have watched their betters feast on the bounty.
To continue the “tax-free jackpot” only makes matters worse. Now that Madoff has laid down the gauntlet with compelling precision, let’s hear from opponents with equal measure.
Paul R. Spitzzeri
Chino Hills
What’s in our beef
Re “Antibiotics, meat don’t mix,” Editorial, July 6
The complex challenge of antimicrobial resistance can’t be addressed by singling out the livestock industry. It must be done through a comprehensive, scientific approach that looks at all antibiotic use, including all animal, human and industrial use.
A tremendous amount of international research has been done on this topic, and to date there is no conclusive scientific evidence indicating that the judicious use of antibiotics in cattle leads to antimicrobial resistance in humans.
The non-scientific removal of antibiotics in Europe actually led to increased animal disease and increased use of therapeutic antibiotics with no demonstrable improvement in human antibiotic resistance patterns.
Preventive medicine keeps cattle healthy, and healthy cattle are the foundation of a safe food supply. Working with veterinarians, cattle producers use tools such as proper care, nutrition, vaccinations and medications to prevent, control and treat diseases.
Agenda-driven, non-science-based banning of antibiotics would ultimately harm animal health and animal welfare, and food safety and food security.
Elizabeth Parker
Washington
The writer is chief veterinarian of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.
Your editorial was excellent. However, Congress is unlikely to act in favor of consumers rather than the businesses that pay all those well-dressed lobbyists to wander the hallways of power and write bills that suit their needs.
Those of us old enough to remember still have images of that line of tobacco company CEOs who testified, one after the other, that nicotine was not addictive. More recently we have seen BP’s top executives dismiss the seriousness of the oil fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico and talk about their concerns for the “small people.”
Major companies own and operate Congress for their own good. You can already see the line of lobbyists forming in congressional hallways, ready to make sure that there are enough people to block any serious legislation that might alter their bottom line. If that means belittling the science or lying about how harmful their practices are, that is what will be done.
The business of America is still business, as is apparent when you look at Goldman Sachs and its bonus bonanzas even as the American economy struggles to keep from falling back into recession.
Gary Peters
Paso Robles
Safe cycling and sharing the road
Re “‘Sharrows’ point the way to safer bicycling,”
July 4
I am all for “sharrows” on residential streets and congratulate Santa Monica for these shared lane arrows on 14th Street.
I am skeptical, however, that sharrows or anything else but dedicated bike lanes will make biking any safer on busy commercial streets with buses, trucks and heavy traffic.
Because bicycles are legal on sidewalks in Los Angeles, an inexpensive and simple solution — where sidewalks are wide enough — is to share the sidewalk with pedestrians. A few feet on the curb side would be marked for bicycles. This would be safer for both cyclists and pedestrians; currently riding on a busy sidewalk means dodging pedestrians who don’t see you coming from behind.
John Glass
Studio City
With regard to the “sharrow” symbols beginning to appear on our streets:
How about we add little ones to stop signs to encourage sharing the experience of stopping with our new lane-mates. Otherwise they’ll be rear-ending us all the time and wondering what the heck happened.
Cary Moore
Los Angeles
