The city of Bell’s police chief; the tax-cut debate; a heartwarming Sandy Banks column

It starts at the top

Re “Chief’s deal had tax angle,” Sept. 23, and “ Bell chief’s pension deal investigated,” Sept. 24

It can all begin with the free cup of coffee at the proverbial doughnut shop. Unfortunately, greed sometimes overshadows basic common sense.

Prevention of police (and other governmental entities) corruptive influences must begin at the top.

If a chief allows simple greed to interfere with good decision-making, the message becomes loud and clear for all within the ranks.

Jim Weyant

Big Bear City

Thank you for your informative story regarding the former police chief of Bell, Randy Adams. If true, how conniving that he apparently figured a way around paying some taxes by claiming a “disability pension” as opposed to a regular one. It would be a dishonorable action within what should be an honorable profession.

I wonder how many other public servants are looking to collect “disability” pensions so they’re not taxed? Why do these officials like to skirt the system that the rest of us have to abide by?

Shirley Lansberg

Ventura

Excellent story on the Bell police chief. This is the kind of story we all benefit from. It’s also the kind we stand to lose as the large daily newspaper careens toward extinction.

Thomas Boyd

Diamond Bar

Lone Pine development

Re “Ranch for sale holds key to Lone Pine’s future,” Sept. 21

Just what we need, mini-mansions lining the road to Whitney Portal.

Is there to be no escape from this sort of urban blight? And who will live in them? The unemployed? Dozens of California cities, not to mention Las Vegas, are virtual ghost towns filled with these monsters.

Or are they to be sold as yet another home for the super-rich? One day, even they may tire of this kind of empty acquisition. Pathetic.

Carolyn Ziegler-Davenport

Pine Mountain Club, Calif.

Taxes and income

Re “Too rich to last,” Opinion, Sept. 23

Professors Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson are right on the mark about the increasingly destructive role of money in our political system.

We are fast becoming a 21st century feudal society.

With the huge gap between the wealth of the rich and the poor and the shrinking middle class, we now have the “lords” who use their wealth to promote their own ends with the “vassals” (read “members of Congress”) and the serfs who will work for anything to keep their families alive.

Can our American democracy be saved?

Gloria Van Gieson

North Hills

The Op-Ed article was excellent and needs to be widely read. The authors could have substituted “America” for “democracy” and still been right.

Not only are growing disparities in income ludicrous and unfair, they will ultimately bring the economy to its knees.

Though the bankers and financial alchemists have been healed by government bailouts, millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed.

Our economy depends on consumption, but consumption has been crippled by a combination of job losses, flat wages, home foreclosures and uncertainty. Shifting more national income to the wealthy results in less consumption, not more, which in turn decreases demand for most goods and services. With businesses selling less, they have no incentive to invest.

Shift enough to the wealthiest people and the economy will ultimately stagnate, raising unemployment to unacceptable levels and increasing anguish almost everywhere.

Gary Peters

Paso Robles

The greatest danger to American democracy is the class hatred spewed by progressives like Hacker and Pierson.

The free market is responsible for America having a high standard of living. The authors ignore that more money in private hands has always resulted in more investment and job creation.

The so-called progressive income tax has been a total disaster. Rates have grown to confiscatory levels for everyone and have resulted in economic imprisonment. Those behind this draconian scheme have used it to implement their social justice quackery, creating parasitic government bureaucracies that balloon in size and demand more money each year.

Pat Murphy

Pacific Palisades

What more do you want from us? You have told us that the middle class is taxed enough, but then you make us give those who are in our county illegally everything they want.

You tell us that you will add taxes to the rich, then give recovery money to banks so that their executives can have huge bonuses for running the bank into bankruptcy.

You say you are going to lower the cost of healthcare, and then you put in a program for which we will have to pay.

I can no longer afford you making my life better. I go to work every day and work very hard to give my family a better life, and you take it all away.

More than half of my wages go to pay the taxes that are assessed me in one way or another: income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, Social Security taxes, excise taxes, gasoline taxes. What more do you want from us?

Michael Bray

Rancho Palos Verdes

The authors are to be commended and applauded for their intelligent, rational analysis and commentary. They provide an insightful view and historical perspective of tax-cutting agendas and the effect on our democracy as well as on our economy.

It is beyond my comprehension how the GOP favors tax cuts as a solution for virtually every socioeconomic ill that confronts us. Supply-side or trickle-down economics have failed time and time again, so what would tax cuts for the top 2% do to provide economic relief today?

Dan Pellow

Westchester

I didn’t need to read the bios to know that the authors were eggheads toiling in academia — the general cluelessness of their piece was a dead giveaway.

They claim to be puzzled why some Democrats support extending the Bush tax cuts to upper-income groups, but what is really puzzling is why they don’t venture out of their ivory towers from time to time.

The unspoken assumption that runs through their piece is exactly why liberals always overstep their ambitions, even when, as in 2008, they come to power with so much goodwill. That assumption is that government has the right to confiscate people’s earnings at whatever level it feels it needs at any given moment.

We may fume about income disparities, but a stronger inclination rails against the government’s taking of people’s income, however high that income might be.

Tom Gilroy

Manhattan Beach

I’m struck by the language used by the authors in their dismissal of tax cuts for the “rich.” The authors say that “even as the rich grew vastly richer, Washington decided they needed more help.”

“Help”?

If you are now able to keep a greater percentage of the money you have earned, can that really be explained as Washington “helping” you?

Whose money is it? It’s yours, and Washington doesn’t “help” you simply by letting you keep more of what you have earned.

Anne Kemp Hummel

Woodland Hills

She could feel the love

Re “Love repairs a family home,” Column, Sept. 21

My eyes filled with tears as I read Sandy Banks’ kind words about the efforts of the networking group First Tuesday’s Circle of Giving in refurbishing a home.

I think the example of goodness shining, and then reflected from, foster and adoptive mother Wanda Burton is the strongest of all. The years of love she has bestowed on her family and friends are worth more than gold.

Beverly Franco

Monterey Park