Letter to the Editor: What's fair?

The Times of Trenton (New Jersey)
November 14, 2011 Monday

What's fair in this great society? I recently read that the Yankees signed their best pitcher to a five-year deal worth a guaranteed $122 million ("Yankees sign Sabathia to new deal," Nov. 1). Did anyone else cringe on hearing about that? To put it in perspective, the 2011 budget for the City of Trenton (our state capital) is less than twice that. We should all be so lucky, or talented, or something, right?

But when a few people are rewarded way, way beyond the best efforts of the average person, society as a whole is impoverished. Ironically, who can afford anymore to go to the stadium to watch "America's game"? This American way of squandering resources is unsustainable and untenable, yet it's endemic and epidemic.

We need to put the "we" back in society and start using more of our tremendous resources for the group, not the few individuals who stand on the group's shoulders. (That's the real Ponzi scheme, Gov. Perry.) We can begin this with the tax system, where graduated rates (not unjust flat rates) up to 50 percent or higher need to be implemented so that more of that "squandered" money returns to the "fans" who actually generate it and desperately need it.

Revising the tax system by itself will not solve the country's economic woes. But let's be honest: A $122-million pitcher, taxed at 75 percent, would still be a multimillionaire -- part of the infamous top 1 percent -- yet the added tax revenue would make the country almost $100 million richer in infrastructure, education and social services. Doesn't that sound more like a Great Society?

John Delaney,

Pennington