6-11-05

Dear Editor,

I have been following with interest the ‘estate tax issue’ letters your readers have been writing. It has been very informational. Not only has it confirmed prior impressions, but also has shed new light on the subject. It is sobering to hear the hatred held against those who have money, and the desire to see the government take it away. It is also clear now that the estate tax affects not only the super rich, who likely find some way around it anyways, but also the small family farmer who is passing down his farm to the fourth generation. That the children, those without expert estate planning, should have to come up with a possible 20% tax in order to keep the farm should not be acceptable to any of us.

What strange irony that the laws intended to punish the rich, are usually the laws only the rich can afford to get around. It would be better if the government just stuck to raising taxes instead of trying to punish certain kinds of behavior and people with their tax laws.

It is a little known historical fact, (of course no longer taught in our public schools) that the reason the Pilgrims nearly starved in their first winter in the New World, was not because they did not know how to raise corn until the Indians told them how, but because of their system of government they had set in place. The Pilgrims had pledged in their compact to share and share alike all worldly goods, and to have all material possessions in common. A modern communist would have considered it a wonderland, no doubt. What happened instead was that the bums did not work, and the industrious people only produced enough for themselves, and everyone nearly starved. I believe it was in the second year that they changed the rules, and that fall they celebrated their first Thanksgiving amidst abundance.

The cold hard facts are that in our fallen world it does not work to punish the achievers in order to benefit those who have less. Even St. Paul said, “Those who do not work should not eat”. In heaven no doubt all will be available to all, but that is because everyone there will be a saint. On this earth we are not all saints, and any efforts to bring the state of heaven, into earth’s governmental economic polices has always failed, and will continue to fail. In the meantime it is better to quit hating and start working.

That is also why governments who refrain from preaching hatred and allow free economic policies succeed; within the framework of fair and just laws of course. Those governments who preach hatred against success, and hinder the enterprising among us from succeeding always fail. Their failure then affects the very people they profess to champion, the poor, the most. You tell me which is most Christian?

Jerry Eicher

Farmville