Who's earned it?

Regarding the "redistribution of wealth": I would never endorse any plan whereby money earned by one person should be taken from that person and given to another person. I don't personally know anyone who would be comfortable with such a plan. (I never met Karl Marx.)

However, let's take a closer look at the word "earned." If the CEO of a Fortune 500 company comes by his or her billions via the bribing, blackmailing or extorting of public officials to obtain favorable legislation, favorable court decisions or juicy contracts, he or she has not earned that money. If he or she comes by his or her billions by cooking the books, fixing prices, befouling the environment, turning his or her back on America by outsourcing jobs or moving company headquarters to a post office box in Dubai to avoid taxes, or any of a myriad of other scams, he or she has not earned his or her money. If a Wall Street banker, broker or hedge fund manager hits the jackpot by manipulating the market, bamboozling clients, insider trading, betting other people's money which he or she doesn't really have, they have not earned their money. They have, in effect, stolen it.

I don't think it unreasonable to take stolen money from a common thief and return it to its rightful owners.

I hasten to add here that I don't endorse "giving" it to anyone. I just want it put back into the economy and made available to people who are willing to work and earn it legitimately.

Rick Weston
Concord

YOUs read this week by host Arnie Arnesen