to the editor: Although contributing writer Veronique de Rugy offers multiple observations to illuminate America's growing affordability problem (most attractively describing Walmart's “inflation-free Thanksgiving meal” as a drain), she doesn't actually offer any solutions (“The real answer to Republicans' 'affordability problem'” November 13). He proclaims that wealth transfers (presumably from rich to poor) are not a solution and points out that constant 3% inflation reduces the value of the dollar by 26% after a decade.
I wonder more about the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich than about the transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor. This happens every day when the billionaires who control wages pay salaried and hourly workers less than they are worth. It happens every day when Walmart workers have to make do with less than a living wage (SNAP benefits, anyone?) while working full time or close to it.
Living wages are something that conservative economists seem to believe should not exist in a cutthroat market, but I will point out that economist adam smith He put that idea as fundamental in his work. There was also the tacit, but at the time obvious, knowledge that someone who worked in a factory could return to the farm if necessary, although that option had largely been lost to modern workers.
Miguel Lampel, Granada Hills
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to the editor: De Rugy's recent column, warning that “the Democrats' record is no better” when it comes to affordability, might have noted a significant difference: For more than 100 years, Democratic economic policy has focused on the needs of American workers, while Republican spending has allowed for greater enrichment of the least needy. Affordable health insurance, higher education, housing, child care, medications and public transportation (all of which Republicans fought tooth and nail) make our nation healthier and stronger. Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires accomplish the opposite.
Eric Carey, Arlington, Virginia.
