Yale President On Legacies

voronwe
Sun, 31 Oct 2004 16:41:44 +0000

I agree with Mini that diversity should include low income people. The only reason I have trouble with having people with money pay even more than they do now is just how much of the burden is already being carried by those people. As someone posted on another thread, with half the country not paying income taxes and so many getting the earned income credit, and so many of the truly wealthy paying nothing or hiding income, a HUGE, disproportionate burden falls on one class of people. I pay enough federal taxes in one year to pay for two years at Yale, plus I pay full freight at my son’s school (not Yale). The federal money is going to tons and tons and tons of social services, medicaid, government pensions, etc., plus I make a lot of charitable contributions. And yet people get really angry when the people who pay a small fortune in taxes get a tax cut. It’s just that there really is a limit to what one person can pay.

OF COURSE in the case of the neediest, I want to pay. But it galls me that in my state a man can work for a mere TEN YEARS and then collect a pension FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. It is hard not to feel taken advantage of. My tax dollars go to stuff like rebuilding homes for people who insist on building in places where it floods - I read about one guy who was paid 4 times, almost a million dollars.

Sorry, Mini, this has next to nothing to do with the problem. It’s been a bad day. I have bills for my daughter who has cancer, bills for college, bills for all kinds of things, and then I read in the paper about the pension thing and I thought: and I am ALSO being asked to support near deadbeats that only work 35 hours a week while I work 60 or 70!

I can’t pay any more. I and people like me are supporting half the country as it is - people who pay nothing and therefore have NO STAKE in the government. It’s like people who pay no co-pay or very little overusing medical services.

That rant over, I would be glad to see my taxes go to the TRULY NEEDY including for education at Yale.