Re: “Wealth disparity bad news for democracy,” letter Jan. 28
Dear editor,
I was quite alarmed by the issues raised by Mr. Marquis in a letter recently printed in this paper, so much so that I visited the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ website to read the articles to which he referred. Honestly, I am not sure there are words to fully express my disappointment.
Both the articles on the CCPA’s website and the aforementioned letters are based on an argument that makes a basic appeal to our greed: “I want what you have,” and “I want the government to give it to me.”
This argument is sometimes disguised in friendlier words like “fair wealth sharing,” but really means wealth redistribution.
If we, as Canadians, live by this logic this is indeed bad news for democracy.
Historically, this line of reasoning always ends in tyranny.
We justify our greed with the assumption that all of these CEOs are involved in corruption in order to gain what they now have.
Since none of these articles mentioned any evidence of this, it would appear that a presupposition is at play here.
But even if all 100 of these CEOs are illegally or wrongfully gaining their salaries, there is a massive jump in logic to say that their salaries should be given to me.
Then there is one last jump that all the articles make: Not only is it wrong that these CEOs make a lot of money, not only should I get what they have, but somehow private business is the responsibility of government.
In an economy that is struggling as ours is, this line of reasoning can be very appealing as we feel the hurt in our wallets.
But I must not let my greed and selfishness get the best of me.
Theft is theft no matter what fancy name you give it.
Dallas Lammiman, Airdrie
