Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a letter from a writer who sees the issue in Wisconsin (and throughout the nation) with perfect clarity. We are witnessing a clash between those who have become accustomed to living very well at the expense of other people and think they are entitled to continue doing so, and those who don’t want to keep paying. As I have often said, Marx was not mistaken in positing class warfare, but just got the classes wrong. The conflict has always been between tax consumers and tax payers.
The letter:
In “What’s at Stake in Wisconsin’s Budget Battle” (Cross Country, Feb. 19), John Fund raises the issue of who’s in charge of our political system, voters or government unions? The answer is simple: government unions. This pattern must change, and the first leg of that change must be in Madison, the father of union giveaways. It is important for Gov. Walker not to succumb to union pressure, and it is equally as important for President Obama not to interfere in matters outside his domain.
I am reminded of French political economist and classical theorist Frederic Bastiat, who said, “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it.” It seems that Monsieur Bastiat had our politicians in mind.
Elio Valenti
Brooklyn, N.Y.
