Letters - Saturday
Time to fight for your rights
I am not a politician or a government bureaucrat. I am a musician who cannot escape the point that our country is at a turning point. There's an old Reggae song with these words:
"Stand up! Stand up! Stand up for your rights!
"Don't give up ... don't give up the fight!"
We know that we love our country for the freedom, the rights that are our birthright, and some of us believe they are threatened, but what are rights? Is the right to pursue our own happiness and keep the fruits of our labor the same as a "right" to education, government assistance, health care? Why or why not?
Where do rights come from? Are they privileges handed out by a benevolent government, God-given, or do they exist because of our nature as human beings?
What are the principles, the ideas behind our Founders' willingness to fight for their rights? What principles could be so deeply understood as to inspire them to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to defend them?
A short message cannot give you answers, so instead I want to call you to the battle of ideas. To know the answers to these kinds of questions we must rise above our education and work to get a deeper understanding of that which we know we are losing.
If we disagree with current trends and legislation, it's not enough to vent, and just feel good when we hear the words "freedom" and "rights." We must carry on where our Founders left off, and not give up the vigilance, the fight. Only if we know HOW to face those who would further erode our rights will we ever be effective.
We have great documents, great thinkers and even great fiction to fuel our battle. The words of our Founders, of Ayn Rand, and of living writers such as Edward Cline and Amity Schlaes are well worth our time.
I hope we can honor the Founders and our country by a pledge to hone our thinking and actions. We need to regain our understanding of the roots of freedom, and then "Stand up! Stand up! Stand up for our rights!"
Hannah Krening, Larkspur
Adding jobs good for region
Good news is good news. A Fortune 100 company announces a $250 million data center for Colorado Springs, and a few in the community criticize the city for putting a strain on our electric resources. A Fortune 500 company announces a 600-job operations center which includes customer service functions, and again a few criticize the Economic Development Corp. for not bringing in higher paying jobs.
To those that have difficulty seeing the good news in these and other job announcements, I ask, do you realize that we are in the worst economy since the Great Depression? There are 25,000 people in our community who are unemployed, many with unemployment benefits expiring, who would love to have a job making $12 per hour with full benefits. It is more difficult now than ever to attract quality jobs to our community.
I started working in economic development in Pittsburgh, Pa., right after the demise of the steel industry. In the space of five years, Pittsburgh lost 100,000 steel jobs. People who lost their jobs also lost their homes, their cars and their ability to take care of their families. The entire community celebrated whenever any job announcement was made.
We are blessed to live in such a great city, so let's celebrate our job successes. After all, quality of life begins with a job.
David L. White, Executive vice president, Marketing, Colorado Springs Regional Economic, Development Corporation
New, old idea for local taxes
The Gazette's June 27 article, "A strong call for stable funding," dealt with a central problem of local government. To the extent that a local government is supported by sales taxes, it will be susceptible to swings in the economy.
The article said a committee of citizens is trying to find ways of sustainably funding cities and local services. I suggest one such proven method.
In 16th-century France, the Fisicrats were a group trying to bring logical analysis to bear on governmental questions. They arrived at the conclusion that "ground rents" should be the source of most or all taxes. Ground rent is the portion of full rent that is attributable only to the size and location of the parcel. Any returns or rents due to what is grown on or built on the parcel is not part of ground rent.
A particular location is made more valuable because more people decide to live around it. Since it is the society as a whole which gives ground rent its value, the Fisicrats reasoned that society should regain part of that value in tax revenue. For nearly 200 years ground rents were the primary source of tax revenue in most of Europe. Then, in England power shifted from the crown to Parliament. Parliament was (and is) composed of large-scale land owners. Over the next 200 years ground rents shrank (as a percent of all revenues) from nearly 100 percent to 2 percent. To make up the difference, income, sales and excise taxes were introduced.
Everyone reading this should write a letter to his commissioners and representatives asking them to reinstate the Fisicrats' ground rents as the basis for most local taxation.
Joseph Mitchener, Colorado Springs
