Letter: Are you better off now than in 1981?

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August 14, 2012

Letter: Are you better off now than in 1981?

Anonymous Gloucester Daily Times The Gloucester Daily Times Tue Aug 14, 2012, 12:00 AM EDT

To the editor:

We have elected a number of candidates in the past century who made promises and spoke in generalities.

Rarely did details about what needed to be done ever get mentioned.

Platitudes are given freely. “Follow me, and we can make the pie higher” is a concept that appeals to multimillionaires and billionaires. It also seduces those who think somehow they might be elevated to such a rank in spite of a bank balance in the hundreds or low thousands that hasn’t grown much in the past two or three decades.

Are you better off now than you were in 1981? Unless your income has grown to a generous six figure amount, you have either barely kept up with inflation or have lost ground.

Don’t look for data from somebody else; just look at your tax returns from 1981, 1991, and so on, then look at the inflation rate.

Listen to the complaints from friends and family. How many are laughing about how rich they are? How many have offshore accounts? How many wear $700 barn jackets?

We have choices to make this November. For example, you can vote for “My husband is a nice guy who changed diapers,” or you can vote for Elizabeth Warren. She, too, is a nice person who changed diapers.

She also has plans for putting some people back to work on vital infrastructure work. There are hundreds who could begin to work immediately if we finance the road, bridge, and sewer repair work. This is work that absolutely must be done.

Gloucester is a painful example of what happens when we elect officials who mostly make promises. Millions of extra dollars are being spent now to correct problems that should have been handled in the past at less expense.

We can be responsible and do what is possibly painful but necessary, or we can vote to “make the pie higher.”

Vote for the latter and you won’t be given access to the table or even a fork. You might be given a photo of the invited guests.

ARTHUR THOMAS

Gloucester