Letter to the Editor: Kimball Shinkoskey
The AJT welcomes your letters. If you would like your letter to be published, please write 200 words or less, and send it to editor@atljewishtimes.com.
In the ancient Roman democracy, there were two economic classes. Roman aristocrats (patricians) owned land, and the lower class plebians largely did not, but wanted to.
In America, the divide is not so much over land as over wealth and income. This divide touches such issues as interest rates, salaries and wages, rents, unionization, social welfare benefits, and taxes.
The Roman historian Livy wrote, “Political decisions always have been and always will be influenced by party spirit and concern for property.” Livy reported that aristocrats suppressed the plebians because they thought the commoners had a goal to expropriate their lands entirely. Republicans seem to express a similar fear about theft of their wealth by socialist progressives today.
Rebalancing of wealth and income does not have to “go all the way.” It never did in Rome. It can be done reasonably, and perhaps by the states, so as to avoid one rigid national policy for all.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
comments