Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR PROL DREAMS I have long been a faithful NL reader, but the July 21 issue puzzled me to a point that I must write—principally to Gus Tyler ("The Working Class Rediscovered") but also to...
...Does Rustin really feel that it will be easier to get voters to tax themselves into doing the right thing, rather than offering incentives—i.e., unearned income—that would encourage banks, etc., to finance such projects...
...The case of agribusiness and the University of California is a perfect illustration of the latter...
...Frugality has always been a habit, and now no mezzo del camino my savings bring me some extra pleasures...
...How safe and comfortable for Roche and company...
...3. Regarding Federal projects financed by taxed unearned income vs...
...DEAR EDITOR PROL DREAMS I have long been a faithful NL reader, but the July 21 issue puzzled me to a point that I must write—principally to Gus Tyler ("The Working Class Rediscovered") but also to Bayard Rustin (The Ballot Box and the Union Card...
...What about those who like myself have worked, saved, no longer wish to work but intend to be self-supporting...
...In my days as a factory worker I belonged to a union...
...Not so...
...His completely correct hopes for the poor and the black must be Federally financed...
...While deploring the credit-and-inflation wracked plight of the worker, Tyler has only one word for savers like me...
...If I am to be deprived of it through taxation I have three further questions: a) What is wrong with my investing in private enterprise through my savings bank or the stock market...
...Berkeley, Calif...
...What is gained by forcing me to stick to my last 15 years longer when someone who wants the job is waiting...
...b) What will the unions do with their pension fund monies that earn substantial unearned income...
...Rustin has no kind words either...
...private projects financed by savings banks, inter alia...
...I look forward to pre-65 retirement on the fruit of my savings, opening my job to someone who literally needs it more, and devoting my own time to nonprofit activities that need doing...
...So far I am, or thought I was, a girl you'd be proud of...
...Like many of my generation I worked my way up from poverty, crossing the line from blue to white collar by sacrifice, hard work and the grace of God...
...And assuming I had planned to use my "unearned income"' to educate my children, it would mean greater pressure on public colleges, a smaller percentage getting in, and still higher taxes to expand facilities...
...2. My unearned income is simply the fruit of my earned income (whose expenditure I have deferred...
...I am enough of a prol to feel a visceral rage about heirs lolling about yachts, drinking champagne while I scrub the decks...
...Which brings me to my key points: 1. Tvler advocates jobs for all who wish to work...
...4. Last but not least, if unearned income is to be severely taxed it would mean less money on two counts for union pensioners-first by lowering the income of the union pension plans, then by each individual share being diminished through taxes...
...This, in turn, would mean an increase in union dues, or less actual spending money for workers...
...What punishment does he propose for self-proclaimed "liberals" who sit behind administrative desks with seats of concrete when laws are broken re: desegregation, support of equal opportunity, and the prostitution of the university in support of corporate interests...
...Or, are their dues, and Roche's, to be limited to the future chronicling of the automatic redress of grievances through the democratic process—after the present time when the jails are frequently filled and bodies are left on the ground as the price for ending an un-supportable war and winning a little social justice at home...
...c) What is to happen to widows and orphans who live off the income of life insurance, savings, etc...
...Reduce this to implementation and it means higher taxes-lower savings-less interest at the savings bank-unearned income thrice as hard to come by, and taxed into nullity...
...and the champagne (would you believe a beer...
...Charles H. Shain...
...Is this good...
...Doesn't the extra bit of money represented by unearned income sponsor far more jobs through greater expenditure on "extras"—campers, golf clubs, trips to beauty parlors, beer or soda instead of water with meals—than it could generate when drained off as taxes, re-spent by the government...
...In my present job there are no unions, but my vote is in the right place...
...I am to be taxed out of my "unearned income...
...New York City Name Withheld on Request ROCHE John Roche offers a splendid rationale for students and other critics of the status quo to take the full brunt of any laws they might violate ("The Rebellion of the Clerks," NL, June 23...
...My taxes grew along with my income, (which outstripped inflation mainly because I became ever more efficient...
...But I am also enough of a prol to dream that my savings will earn me the yacht (would you believe a rowboat...
...Are my poor old prol dreams bound to come to naught...
Vol. 52 • August 1969 • No. 15
